Org Mode Manual

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,”
and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license
is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and
modify this GNU manual.”

1.1 Summary

Org is a mode for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, and doing
project planning with a fast and effective plain-text system.

Org develops organizational tasks around NOTES files that contain
lists or information about projects as plain text. Org is
implemented on top of Outline mode, which makes it possible to keep the
content of large files well structured. Visibility cycling and
structure editing help to work with the tree. Tables are easily created
with a built-in table editor. Org supports TODO items, deadlines,
timestamps, and scheduling. It dynamically compiles entries into an
agenda that utilizes and smoothly integrates much of the Emacs calendar
and diary. Plain text URL-like links connect to websites, emails,
Usenet messages, BBDB entries, and any files related to the projects.
For printing and sharing notes, an Org file can be exported as a
structured ASCII file, as HTML, or (TODO and agenda items only) as an
iCalendar file. It can also serve as a publishing tool for a set of
linked web pages.

As a project planning environment, Org works by adding metadata to outline
nodes. Based on this data, specific entries can be extracted in queries and
create dynamic agenda views.

Org mode contains the Org Babel environment which allows you to work with
embedded source code blocks in a file, to facilitate code evaluation,
documentation, and literate programming techniques.

Org’s automatic, context-sensitive table editor with spreadsheet
capabilities can be integrated into any major mode by activating the
minor Orgtbl mode. Using a translation step, it can be used to maintain
tables in arbitrary file types, for example in LaTeX. The structure
editing and list creation capabilities can be used outside Org with
the minor Orgstruct mode.

Org keeps simple things simple. When first fired up, it should
feel like a straightforward, easy to use outliner. Complexity is not
imposed, but a large amount of functionality is available when you need
it. Org is a toolbox and can be used in different ways and for different
ends, for example:

• an outline extension with visibility cycling and structure editing• an ASCII system and table editor for taking structured notes• a TODO list editor• a full agenda and planner with deadlines and work scheduling• an environment in which to implement David Allen’s GTD system• a simple hypertext system, with HTML and LaTeX export• a publishing tool to create a set of interlinked web pages• an environment for literate programming

There is a website for Org which provides links to the newest
version of Org, as well as additional information, frequently asked
questions (FAQ), links to tutorials, etc. This page is located at
http://orgmode.org.

1.2 Installation

Org is part of recent distributions of GNU Emacs, so you normally don’t need
to install it. If, for one reason or another, you want to install Org on top
of this pre-packaged version, there are three ways to do it:

By using Emacs package system.

By downloading Org as an archive.

By using Org’s git repository.

We strongly recommend to stick to a single installation method.

Using Emacs packaging system

Recent Emacs distributions include a packaging system which lets you install
Elisp libraries. You can install Org with M-x package-install RET org.

Important: you need to do this in a session where no .org file has
been visited, i.e. where no Org built-in function have been loaded.
Otherwise autoload Org functions will mess up the installation.

Then, to make sure your Org configuration is taken into account, initialize
the package system with (package-initialize) in your .emacs
before setting any Org option. If you want to use Org’s package repository,
check out the Org ELPA page.

Downloading Org as an archive

You can download Org latest release from Org’s
website. In this case, make sure you set the load-path correctly in your
.emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/path/to/orgdir/lisp")

The downloaded archive contains contributed libraries that are not included
in Emacs. If you want to use them, add the contrib directory to your
load-path:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/path/to/orgdir/contrib/lisp" t)

Optionally, you can compile the files and/or install them in your system.
Run make help to list compilation and installation options.

Using Org’s git repository

Note that in this case, make autoloads is mandatory: it defines Org’s
version in org-version.el and Org’s autoloads in
org-loaddefs.el.

Remember to add the correct load-path as described in the method above.

You can also compile with make, generate the documentation with
make doc, create a local configuration with make config and
install Org with make install. Please run make help to get
the list of compilation/installation options.

For more detailed explanations on Org’s build system, please check the Org
Build System page on Worg.

1.3 Activation

Since Emacs 22.2, files with the .org extension use Org mode by
default. If you are using an earlier version of Emacs, add this line to your
.emacs file:

(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.org\\'" . org-mode))

Org mode buffers need font-lock to be turned on: this is the default in
Emacs1.

There are compatibility issues between Org mode and some other Elisp
packages, please take the time to check the list (see Conflicts).

The four Org commands org-store-link, org-capture,
org-agenda, and org-iswitchb should be accessible through
global keys (i.e., anywhere in Emacs, not just in Org buffers). Here are
suggested bindings for these keys, please modify the keys to your own
liking.

With this setup, all files with extension ‘.org’ will be put
into Org mode. As an alternative, make the first line of a file look
like this:

MY PROJECTS -*- mode: org; -*-

which will select Org mode for this buffer no matter what
the file’s name is. See also the variable
org-insert-mode-line-in-empty-file.

Many commands in Org work on the region if the region is active. To make
use of this, you need to have transient-mark-mode
(zmacs-regions in XEmacs) turned on. In Emacs 23 this is the default,
in Emacs 22 you need to do this yourself with

(transient-mark-mode 1)

If you do not like transient-mark-mode, you can create an
active region by using the mouse to select a region, or pressing
C-SPC twice before moving the cursor.

1.4 Feedback

If you find problems with Org, or if you have questions, remarks, or ideas
about it, please mail to the Org mailing list emacs-orgmode@gnu.org.
If you are not a member of the mailing list, your mail will be passed to the
list after a moderator has approved it2.

For bug reports, please first try to reproduce the bug with the latest
version of Org available—if you are running an outdated version, it is
quite possible that the bug has been fixed already. If the bug persists,
prepare a report and provide as much information as possible, including the
version information of Emacs (M-x emacs-version RET) and Org
(M-x org-version RET), as well as the Org related setup in
.emacs. The easiest way to do this is to use the command

M-x org-submit-bug-report RET

which will put all this information into an Emacs mail buffer so
that you only need to add your description. If you re not sending the Email
from within Emacs, please copy and paste the content into your Email program.

Sometimes you might face a problem due to an error in your Emacs or Org mode
setup. Before reporting a bug, it is very helpful to start Emacs with minimal
customizations and reproduce the problem. Doing so often helps you determine
if the problem is with your customization or with Org mode itself. You can
start a typical minimal session with a command like the example below.

$ emacs -Q -l /path/to/minimal-org.el

However if you are using Org mode as distributed with Emacs, a minimal setup
is not necessary. In that case it is sufficient to start Emacs as
emacs -Q. The minimal-org.el setup file can have contents as
shown below.

If an error occurs, a backtrace can be very useful (see below on how to
create one). Often a small example file helps, along with clear information
about:

What exactly did you do?

What did you expect to happen?

What happened instead?

Thank you for helping to improve this program.

How to create a useful backtrace

If working with Org produces an error with a message you don’t
understand, you may have hit a bug. The best way to report this is by
providing, in addition to what was mentioned above, a backtrace.
This is information from the built-in debugger about where and how the
error occurred. Here is how to produce a useful backtrace:

Reload uncompiled versions of all Org mode Lisp files. The backtrace
contains much more information if it is produced with uncompiled code.
To do this, use

1.5 Typesetting conventions used in this manual

TODO keywords, tags, properties, etc.

Org mainly uses three types of keywords: TODO keywords, tags and property
names. In this manual we use the following conventions:

TODO

WAITING

TODO keywords are written with all capitals, even if they are
user-defined.

boss

ARCHIVE

User-defined tags are written in lowercase; built-in tags with special
meaning are written with all capitals.

Release

PRIORITY

User-defined properties are capitalized; built-in properties with
special meaning are written with all capitals.

Moreover, Org uses option keywords (like #+TITLE to set the title)
and environment keywords (like #+BEGIN_HTML to start a HTML
environment). They are written in uppercase in the manual to enhance its
readability, but you can use lowercase in your Org files3.

Keybindings and commands

The manual suggests two global keybindings: C-c a for org-agenda
and C-c c for org-capture. These are only suggestions, but the
rest of the manual assumes that you are using these keybindings.

Also, the manual lists both the keys and the corresponding commands for
accessing a functionality. Org mode often uses the same key for different
functions, depending on context. The command that is bound to such keys has
a generic name, like org-metaright. In the manual we will, wherever
possible, give the function that is internally called by the generic command.
For example, in the chapter on document structure, M-right will
be listed to call org-do-demote, while in the chapter on tables, it
will be listed to call org-table-move-column-right. If you prefer,
you can compile the manual without the command names by unsetting the flag
cmdnames in org.texi.

2.1 Outlines

Org is implemented on top of Outline mode. Outlines allow a
document to be organized in a hierarchical structure, which (at least
for me) is the best representation of notes and thoughts. An overview
of this structure is achieved by folding (hiding) large parts of the
document to show only the general document structure and the parts
currently being worked on. Org greatly simplifies the use of
outlines by compressing the entire show/hide functionality into a single
command, org-cycle, which is bound to the TAB key.

Some people find the many stars too noisy and would prefer an
outline that has whitespace followed by a single star as headline
starters. Clean view, describes a setup to realize this.

An empty line after the end of a subtree is considered part of it and
will be hidden when the subtree is folded. However, if you leave at
least two empty lines, one empty line will remain visible after folding
the subtree, in order to structure the collapsed view. See the
variable org-cycle-separator-lines to modify this behavior.

The cursor must be on a headline for this to work6. When the cursor is at the
beginning of the buffer and the first line is not a headline, then
TAB actually runs global cycling (see below)7. Also when called with a prefix
argument (C-u TAB), global cycling is invoked.

Reveal context around point, showing the current entry, the following heading
and the hierarchy above. Useful for working near a location that has been
exposed by a sparse tree command (see Sparse trees) or an agenda command
(see Agenda commands). With a prefix argument show, on each
level, all sibling headings. With a double prefix argument, also show the
entire subtree of the parent.

C-c C-k (show-branches)

Expose all the headings of the subtree, CONTENT view for just one subtree.

C-c TAB (show-children)

Expose all direct children of the subtree. With a numeric prefix argument N,
expose all children down to level N.

C-c C-x b (org-tree-to-indirect-buffer)

Show the current subtree in an indirect buffer8. With a numeric
prefix argument N, go up to level N and then take that tree. If N is
negative then go up that many levels. With a C-u prefix, do not remove
the previously used indirect buffer.

2.3.2 Initial visibility

When Emacs first visits an Org file, the global state is set to OVERVIEW,
i.e., only the top level headlines are visible9. This can be configured through the variable
org-startup-folded, or on a per-file basis by adding one of the
following lines anywhere in the buffer:

The startup visibility options are ignored when the file is open for the
first time during the agenda generation: if you want the agenda to honor
the startup visibility, set org-agenda-inhibit-startup to nil.

Furthermore, any entries with a ‘VISIBILITY’ property (see Properties and Columns) will get their visibility adapted accordingly. Allowed values
for this property are folded, children, content, and
all.

C-u C-u TAB (org-set-startup-visibility)

Switch back to the startup visibility of the buffer, i.e., whatever is
requested by startup options and ‘VISIBILITY’ properties in individual
entries.

2.3.3 Catching invisible edits

Sometimes you may inadvertently edit an invisible part of the buffer and be
confused on what has been edited and how to undo the mistake. Setting
org-catch-invisible-edits to non-nil will help prevent this. See the
docstring of this option on how Org should catch invisible edits and process
them.

2.5 Structure editing

M-RET (org-insert-heading)

Insert a new heading/item with the same level than the one at point.
If the cursor is in a plain list item, a new item is created
(see Plain lists). To prevent this behavior in lists, call the
command with a prefix argument. When this command is used in the
middle of a line, the line is split and the rest of the line becomes
the new item or headline10. If
the command is used at the beginning of a headline, the new
headline is created before the current line. If the command is used
at the end of a folded subtree (i.e., behind the ellipses at
the end of a headline), then a headline will be
inserted after the end of the subtree. Calling this command with
C-u C-u will unconditionally respect the headline’s content and
create a new item at the end of the parent subtree.

C-RET (org-insert-heading-respect-content)

Just like M-RET, except when adding a new heading below the
current heading, the new heading is placed after the body instead of before
it. This command works from anywhere in the entry.

M-S-RET (org-insert-todo-heading)

Insert new TODO entry with same level as current heading. See also the
variable org-treat-insert-todo-heading-as-state-change.

C-S-RET (org-insert-todo-heading-respect-content)

Insert new TODO entry with same level as current heading. Like
C-RET, the new headline will be inserted after the current
subtree.

TAB (org-cycle)

In a new entry with no text yet, the first TAB demotes the entry to
become a child of the previous one. The next TAB makes it a parent,
and so on, all the way to top level. Yet another TAB, and you are back
to the initial level.

M-left (org-do-promote)

Promote current heading by one level.

M-right (org-do-demote)

Demote current heading by one level.

M-S-left (org-promote-subtree)

Promote the current subtree by one level.

M-S-right (org-demote-subtree)

Demote the current subtree by one level.

M-S-up (org-move-subtree-up)

Move subtree up (swap with previous subtree of same
level).

M-S-down (org-move-subtree-down)

Move subtree down (swap with next subtree of same level).

M-h (org-mark-element)

Mark the element at point. Hitting repeatedly will mark subsequent elements
of the one just marked. E.g., hitting M-h on a paragraph will mark it,
hitting M-h immediately again will mark the next one.

C-c @ (org-mark-subtree)

Mark the subtree at point. Hitting repeatedly will mark subsequent subtrees
of the same level than the marked subtree.

Yank subtree from kill ring. This does modify the level of the subtree to
make sure the tree fits in nicely at the yank position. The yank level can
also be specified with a numeric prefix argument, or by yanking after a
headline marker like ‘****’.

C-y (org-yank)

Depending on the options org-yank-adjusted-subtrees and
org-yank-folded-subtrees, Org’s internal yank command will
paste subtrees folded and in a clever way, using the same command as C-c
C-x C-y. With the default settings, no level adjustment will take place,
but the yanked tree will be folded unless doing so would swallow text
previously visible. Any prefix argument to this command will force a normal
yank to be executed, with the prefix passed along. A good way to
force a normal yank is C-u C-y. If you use yank-pop after a
yank, it will yank previous kill items plainly, without adjustment and
folding.

C-c C-x c (org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift)

Clone a subtree by making a number of sibling copies of it. You will be
prompted for the number of copies to make, and you can also specify if any
timestamps in the entry should be shifted. This can be useful, for example,
to create a number of tasks related to a series of lectures to prepare. For
more details, see the docstring of the command
org-clone-subtree-with-time-shift.

Sort same-level entries. When there is an active region, all entries in the
region will be sorted. Otherwise the children of the current headline are
sorted. The command prompts for the sorting method, which can be
alphabetically, numerically, by time (first timestamp with active preferred,
creation time, scheduled time, deadline time), by priority, by TODO keyword
(in the sequence the keywords have been defined in the setup) or by the value
of a property. Reverse sorting is possible as well. You can also supply
your own function to extract the sorting key. With a C-u prefix,
sorting will be case-sensitive.

C-x n s (org-narrow-to-subtree)

Narrow buffer to current subtree.

C-x n b (org-narrow-to-block)

Narrow buffer to current block.

C-x n w (widen)

Widen buffer to remove narrowing.

C-c * (org-toggle-heading)

Turn a normal line or plain list item into a headline (so that it becomes a
subheading at its location). Also turn a headline into a normal line by
removing the stars. If there is an active region, turn all lines in the
region into headlines. If the first line in the region was an item, turn
only the item lines into headlines. Finally, if the first line is a
headline, remove the stars from all headlines in the region.

When there is an active region (Transient Mark mode), promotion and
demotion work on all headlines in the region. To select a region of
headlines, it is best to place both point and mark at the beginning of a
line, mark at the beginning of the first headline, and point at the line
just after the last headline to change. Note that when the cursor is
inside a table (see Tables), the Meta-Cursor keys have different
functionality.

2.6 Sparse trees

An important feature of Org mode is the ability to construct sparse
trees for selected information in an outline tree, so that the entire
document is folded as much as possible, but the selected information is made
visible along with the headline structure above it11. Just try it out
and you will see immediately how it works.

Org mode contains several commands creating such trees, all these
commands can be accessed through a dispatcher:

C-c / (org-sparse-tree)

This prompts for an extra key to select a sparse-tree creating command.

C-c / r (org-occur)

Prompts for a regexp and shows a sparse tree with all matches. If
the match is in a headline, the headline is made visible. If the match is in
the body of an entry, headline and body are made visible. In order to
provide minimal context, also the full hierarchy of headlines above the match
is shown, as well as the headline following the match. Each match is also
highlighted; the highlights disappear when the buffer is changed by an
editing command12, or by pressing C-c C-c.
When called with a C-u prefix argument, previous highlights are kept,
so several calls to this command can be stacked.

M-g norM-g M-n (next-error)

Jump to the next sparse tree match in this buffer.

M-g porM-g M-p (previous-error)

Jump to the previous sparse tree match in this buffer.

For frequently used sparse trees of specific search strings, you can
use the option org-agenda-custom-commands to define fast
keyboard access to specific sparse trees. These commands will then be
accessible through the agenda dispatcher (see Agenda dispatcher).
For example:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
'(("f" occur-tree "FIXME")))

will define the key C-c a f as a shortcut for creating
a sparse tree matching the string ‘FIXME’.

The other sparse tree commands select headings based on TODO keywords,
tags, or properties and will be discussed later in this manual.

To print a sparse tree, you can use the Emacs command
ps-print-buffer-with-faces which does not print invisible parts
of the document 13.
Or you can use C-c C-e C-v to export only the visible part of
the document and print the resulting file.

2.7 Plain lists

Within an entry of the outline tree, hand-formatted lists can provide
additional structure. They also provide a way to create lists of checkboxes
(see Checkboxes). Org supports editing such lists, and every exporter
(see Exporting) can parse and format them.

Ordered list items start with a numeral followed by either a period or
a right parenthesis15, such as ‘1.’ or
‘1)’16. If you want a
list to start with a different value (e.g., 20), start the text of the item
with [@20]17. Those constructs can
be used in any item of the list in order to enforce a particular numbering.

Description list items are unordered list items, and contain the
separator ‘ :: ’ to distinguish the description term from the
description.

Items belonging to the same list must have the same indentation on the first
line. In particular, if an ordered list reaches number ‘10.’, then the
2–digit numbers must be written left-aligned with the other numbers in the
list. An item ends before the next line that is less or equally indented
than its bullet/number.

A list ends whenever every item has ended, which means before any line less
or equally indented than items at top level. It also ends before two blank
lines18.
In that case, all items are closed. Here is an example:

** Lord of the Rings
My favorite scenes are (in this order)
1. The attack of the Rohirrim
2. Eowyn's fight with the witch king
+ this was already my favorite scene in the book
+ I really like Miranda Otto.
3. Peter Jackson being shot by Legolas
- on DVD only
He makes a really funny face when it happens.
But in the end, no individual scenes matter but the film as a whole.
Important actors in this film are:
- Elijah Wood :: He plays Frodo
- Sean Austin :: He plays Sam, Frodo's friend. I still remember
him very well from his role as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies.

Org supports these lists by tuning filling and wrapping commands to deal with
them correctly19, and by exporting them
properly (see Exporting). Since indentation is what governs the
structure of these lists, many structural constructs like #+BEGIN_...
blocks can be indented to signal that they belong to a particular item.

If you find that using a different bullet for a sub-list (than that used for
the current list-level) improves readability, customize the variable
org-list-demote-modify-bullet. To get a greater difference of
indentation between items and theirs sub-items, customize
org-list-indent-offset.

The following commands act on items when the cursor is in the first line of
an item (the line with the bullet or number). Some of them imply the
application of automatic rules to keep list structure intact. If some of
these actions get in your way, configure org-list-automatic-rules
to disable them individually.

TAB (org-cycle)

Items can be folded just like headline levels. Normally this works only if
the cursor is on a plain list item. For more details, see the variable
org-cycle-include-plain-lists. If this variable is set to
integrate, plain list items will be treated like low-level
headlines. The level of an item is then given by the indentation of the
bullet/number. Items are always subordinate to real headlines, however; the
hierarchies remain completely separated. In a new item with no text yet, the
first TAB demotes the item to become a child of the previous
one. Subsequent TABs move the item to meaningful levels in the list
and eventually get it back to its initial position.

M-RET (org-insert-heading)

Insert new item at current level. With a prefix argument, force a new
heading (see Structure editing). If this command is used in the middle
of an item, that item is split in two, and the second part becomes the
new item20. If this command is executed
before item’s body, the new item is created before the current
one.

Jump to the previous/next item in the current list21, but only if
org-support-shift-select is off. If not, you can still use paragraph
jumping commands like C-up and C-down to quite
similar effect.

M-up

M-down

Move the item including subitems up/down22 (swap with
previous/next item of same indentation). If the list is ordered, renumbering
is automatic.

M-left

M-right

Decrease/increase the indentation of an item, leaving children alone.

M-S-left

M-S-right

Decrease/increase the indentation of the item, including subitems.
Initially, the item tree is selected based on current indentation. When
these commands are executed several times in direct succession, the initially
selected region is used, even if the new indentation would imply a different
hierarchy. To use the new hierarchy, break the command chain with a cursor
motion or so.

As a special case, using this command on the very first item of a list will
move the whole list. This behavior can be disabled by configuring
org-list-automatic-rules. The global indentation of a list has no
influence on the text after the list.

C-c C-c

If there is a checkbox (see Checkboxes) in the item line, toggle the
state of the checkbox. In any case, verify bullets and indentation
consistency in the whole list.

C-c -

Cycle the entire list level through the different itemize/enumerate bullets
(‘-’, ‘+’, ‘*’, ‘1.’, ‘1)’) or a subset of them,
depending on org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator, the type of list,
and its indentation. With a numeric prefix argument N, select the Nth bullet
from this list. If there is an active region when calling this, selected
text will be changed into an item. With a prefix argument, all lines will be
converted to list items. If the first line already was a list item, any item
marker will be removed from the list. Finally, even without an active
region, a normal line will be converted into a list item.

C-c *

Turn a plain list item into a headline (so that it becomes a subheading at
its location). See Structure editing, for a detailed explanation.

C-c C-*

Turn the whole plain list into a subtree of the current heading. Checkboxes
(see Checkboxes) will become TODO (resp. DONE) keywords when unchecked
(resp. checked).

S-left/right

This command also cycles bullet styles when the cursor in on the bullet or
anywhere in an item line, details depending on
org-support-shift-select.

C-c ^

Sort the plain list. You will be prompted for the sorting method:
numerically, alphabetically, by time, by checked status for check lists,
or by a custom function.

2.8 Drawers

Sometimes you want to keep information associated with an entry, but you
normally don’t want to see it. For this, Org mode has drawers.
Drawers need to be configured with the option org-drawers23. Drawers look like this:

** This is a headline
Still outside the drawer
:DRAWERNAME:
This is inside the drawer.
:END:
After the drawer.

You can interactively insert drawers at point by calling
org-insert-drawer, which is bound to C-c C-x d. With an active
region, this command will put the region inside the drawer. With a prefix
argument, this command calls org-insert-property-drawer and add a
property drawer right below the current headline. Completion over drawer
keywords is also possible using M-TAB.

Visibility cycling (see Visibility cycling) on the headline will hide and
show the entry, but keep the drawer collapsed to a single line. In order to
look inside the drawer, you need to move the cursor to the drawer line and
press TAB there. Org mode uses the PROPERTIES drawer for
storing properties (see Properties and Columns), and you can also arrange
for state change notes (see Tracking TODO state changes) and clock times
(see Clocking work time) to be stored in a drawer LOGBOOK. If you
want to store a quick note in the LOGBOOK drawer, in a similar way to state changes, use

C-c C-z

Add a time-stamped note to the LOGBOOK drawer.

You can select the name of the drawers which should be exported with
org-export-with-drawers. In that case, drawer contents will appear in
export output. Property drawers are not affected by this variable and are
never exported.

2.9 Blocks

Org mode uses begin...end blocks for various purposes from including source
code examples (see Literal examples) to capturing time logging
information (see Clocking work time). These blocks can be folded and
unfolded by pressing TAB in the begin line. You can also get all blocks
folded at startup by configuring the option org-hide-block-startup
or on a per-file basis by using

2.10 Footnotes

Org mode supports the creation of footnotes. In contrast to the
footnote.el package, Org mode’s footnotes are designed for work on
a larger document, not only for one-off documents like emails.

A footnote is started by a footnote marker in square brackets in column 0, no
indentation allowed. It ends at the next footnote definition, headline, or
after two consecutive empty lines. The footnote reference is simply the
marker in square brackets, inside text. For example:

The Org homepage[fn:1] now looks a lot better than it used to.
...
[fn:1] The link is: http://orgmode.org

Org mode extends the number-based syntax to named footnotes and
optional inline definition. Using plain numbers as markers (as
footnote.el does) is supported for backward compatibility, but not
encouraged because of possible conflicts with LaTeX snippets (see Embedded LaTeX). Here are the valid references:

[1]

A plain numeric footnote marker. Compatible with footnote.el, but not
recommended because something like ‘[1]’ could easily be part of a code
snippet.

[fn:name]

A named footnote reference, where name is a unique label word, or, for
simplicity of automatic creation, a number.

[fn:: This is the inline definition of this footnote]

A LaTeX-like anonymous footnote where the definition is given directly at the
reference point.

[fn:name: a definition]

An inline definition of a footnote, which also specifies a name for the note.
Since Org allows multiple references to the same note, you can then use
[fn:name] to create additional references.

Footnote labels can be created automatically, or you can create names yourself.
This is handled by the variable org-footnote-auto-label and its
corresponding #+STARTUP keywords. See the docstring of that variable
for details.

The following command handles footnotes:

C-c C-x f

The footnote action command.

When the cursor is on a footnote reference, jump to the definition. When it
is at a definition, jump to the (first) reference.

Otherwise, create a new footnote. Depending on the option
org-footnote-define-inline24, the
definition will be placed right into the text as part of the reference, or
separately into the location determined by the option
org-footnote-section.

When this command is called with a prefix argument, a menu of additional
options is offered:

s Sort the footnote definitions by reference sequence. During editing,Org makes no effort to sort footnote definitions into a particularsequence. If you want them sorted, use this command, which willalso move entries according to org-footnote-section. Automaticsorting after each insertion/deletion can be configured using theoption org-footnote-auto-adjust.
r Renumber the simple fn:N footnotes. Automatic renumberingafter each insertion/deletion can be configured using the optionorg-footnote-auto-adjust.
S Short for first r, then s action.
n Normalize the footnotes by collecting all definitions (includinginline definitions) into a special section, and then numbering themin sequence. The references will then also be numbers. This ismeant to be the final step before finishing a document (e.g., sendingoff an email).
d Delete the footnote at point, and all definitions of and referencesto it.

Depending on the variable org-footnote-auto-adjust25,
renumbering and sorting footnotes can be automatic after each insertion or
deletion.

C-c C-c

If the cursor is on a footnote reference, jump to the definition. If it is a
the definition, jump back to the reference. When called at a footnote
location with a prefix argument, offer the same menu as C-c C-x f.

C-c C-o or mouse-1/2

Footnote labels are also links to the corresponding definition/reference, and
you can use the usual commands to follow these links.

2.11 The Orgstruct minor mode

If you like the intuitive way the Org mode structure editing and list
formatting works, you might want to use these commands in other modes like
Text mode or Mail mode as well. The minor mode orgstruct-mode makes
this possible. Toggle the mode with M-x orgstruct-mode RET, or
turn it on by default, for example in Message mode, with one of:

When this mode is active and the cursor is on a line that looks to Org like a
headline or the first line of a list item, most structure editing commands
will work, even if the same keys normally have different functionality in the
major mode you are using. If the cursor is not in one of those special
lines, Orgstruct mode lurks silently in the shadows.

When you use orgstruct++-mode, Org will also export indentation and
autofill settings into that mode, and detect item context after the first
line of an item.

You can also use Org structure editing to fold and unfold headlines in
any file, provided you defined orgstruct-heading-prefix-regexp:
the regular expression must match the local prefix to use before Org’s
headlines. For example, if you set this variable to ";; " in Emacs
Lisp files, you will be able to fold and unfold headlines in Emacs Lisp
commented lines. Some commands like org-demote are disabled when the
prefix is set, but folding/unfolding will work correctly.

2.12 Org syntax

A reference document providing a formal description of Org’s syntax is
available as a draft on
Worg, written and maintained by Nicolas Goaziou. It defines Org’s core
internal concepts such as headlines, sections, affiliated
keywords, (greater) elements and objects. Each part of an Org
file falls into one of the categories above.

To explore the abstract structure of an Org buffer, run this in a buffer:

M-: (org-element-parse-buffer) RET

It will output a list containing the buffer’s content represented as an
abstract structure. The export engine relies on the information stored in
this list. Most interactive commands (e.g., for structure editing) also
rely on the syntactic meaning of the surrounding context.

3.1 The built-in table editor

Org makes it easy to format tables in plain ASCII. Any line with ‘|’ as
the first non-whitespace character is considered part of a table. ‘|’
is also the column separator26. A table
might look like this:

A table is re-aligned automatically each time you press TAB or
RET or C-c C-c inside the table. TAB also moves to
the next field (RET to the next row) and creates new table rows
at the end of the table or before horizontal lines. The indentation
of the table is set by the first line. Any line starting with
‘|-’ is considered as a horizontal separator line and will be
expanded on the next re-align to span the whole table width. So, to
create the above table, you would only type

|Name|Phone|Age|
|-

and then press TAB to align the table and start filling in
fields. Even faster would be to type |Name|Phone|Age followed by
C-c RET.

When typing text into a field, Org treats DEL,
Backspace, and all character keys in a special way, so that
inserting and deleting avoids shifting other fields. Also, when
typing immediately after the cursor was moved into a new field
with TAB, S-TAB or RET, the
field is automatically made blank. If this behavior is too
unpredictable for you, configure the options
org-enable-table-editor and org-table-auto-blank-field.

Creation and conversion

C-c | (org-table-create-or-convert-from-region)

Convert the active region to table. If every line contains at least one
TAB character, the function assumes that the material is tab separated.
If every line contains a comma, comma-separated values (CSV) are assumed.
If not, lines are split at whitespace into fields. You can use a prefix
argument to force a specific separator: C-u forces CSV, C-u
C-u forces TAB, and a numeric argument N indicates that at least N
consecutive spaces, or alternatively a TAB will be the separator.
If there is no active region, this command creates an empty Org
table. But it is easier just to start typing, like
|Name|Phone|Age RET |- TAB.

Re-aligning and field motion

C-c C-c (org-table-align)

Re-align the table and don’t move to another field.

<TAB> (org-table-next-field)

Re-align the table, move to the next field. Creates a new row if
necessary.

S-TAB (org-table-previous-field)

Re-align, move to previous field.

RET (org-table-next-row)

Re-align the table and move down to next row. Creates a new row if
necessary. At the beginning or end of a line, RET still does
NEWLINE, so it can be used to split a table.

M-a (org-table-beginning-of-field)

Move to beginning of the current table field, or on to the previous field.

M-e (org-table-end-of-field)

Move to end of the current table field, or on to the next field.

Column and row editing

M-left (org-table-move-column-left)

M-right (org-table-move-column-right)

Move the current column left/right.

M-S-left (org-table-delete-column)

Kill the current column.

M-S-right (org-table-insert-column)

Insert a new column to the left of the cursor position.

M-up (org-table-move-row-up)

M-down (org-table-move-row-down)

Move the current row up/down.

M-S-up (org-table-kill-row)

Kill the current row or horizontal line.

M-S-down (org-table-insert-row)

Insert a new row above the current row. With a prefix argument, the line is
created below the current one.

C-c - (org-table-insert-hline)

Insert a horizontal line below current row. With a prefix argument, the line
is created above the current line.

C-c RET (org-table-hline-and-move)

Insert a horizontal line below current row, and move the cursor into the row
below that line.

C-c ^ (org-table-sort-lines)

Sort the table lines in the region. The position of point indicates the
column to be used for sorting, and the range of lines is the range
between the nearest horizontal separator lines, or the entire table. If
point is before the first column, you will be prompted for the sorting
column. If there is an active region, the mark specifies the first line
and the sorting column, while point should be in the last line to be
included into the sorting. The command prompts for the sorting type
(alphabetically, numerically, or by time). When called with a prefix
argument, alphabetic sorting will be case-sensitive.

Regions

C-c C-x M-w (org-table-copy-region)

Copy a rectangular region from a table to a special clipboard. Point and
mark determine edge fields of the rectangle. If there is no active region,
copy just the current field. The process ignores horizontal separator lines.

C-c C-x C-w (org-table-cut-region)

Copy a rectangular region from a table to a special clipboard, and
blank all fields in the rectangle. So this is the “cut” operation.

C-c C-x C-y (org-table-paste-rectangle)

Paste a rectangular region into a table.
The upper left corner ends up in the current field. All involved fields
will be overwritten. If the rectangle does not fit into the present table,
the table is enlarged as needed. The process ignores horizontal separator
lines.

M-RET (org-table-wrap-region)

Split the current field at the cursor position and move the rest to the line
below. If there is an active region, and both point and mark are in the same
column, the text in the column is wrapped to minimum width for the given
number of lines. A numeric prefix argument may be used to change the number
of desired lines. If there is no region, but you specify a prefix argument,
the current field is made blank, and the content is appended to the field
above.

Calculations

C-c + (org-table-sum)

Sum the numbers in the current column, or in the rectangle defined by
the active region. The result is shown in the echo area and can
be inserted with C-y.

S-RET (org-table-copy-down)

When current field is empty, copy from first non-empty field above. When not
empty, copy current field down to next row and move cursor along with it.
Depending on the option org-table-copy-increment, integer field
values will be incremented during copy. Integers that are too large will not
be incremented. Also, a 0 prefix argument temporarily disables the
increment. This key is also used by shift-selection and related modes
(see Conflicts).

Miscellaneous

C-c ` (org-table-edit-field)

Edit the current field in a separate window. This is useful for fields that
are not fully visible (see Column width and alignment). When called with
a C-u prefix, just make the full field visible, so that it can be
edited in place. When called with two C-u prefixes, make the editor
window follow the cursor through the table and always show the current
field. The follow mode exits automatically when the cursor leaves the table,
or when you repeat this command with C-u C-u C-c `.

M-x org-table-import RET

Import a file as a table. The table should be TAB or whitespace
separated. Use, for example, to import a spreadsheet table or data
from a database, because these programs generally can write
TAB-separated text files. This command works by inserting the file into
the buffer and then converting the region to a table. Any prefix
argument is passed on to the converter, which uses it to determine the
separator.

C-c | (org-table-create-or-convert-from-region)

Tables can also be imported by pasting tabular text into the Org
buffer, selecting the pasted text with C-x C-x and then using the
C-c | command (see above under Creation and conversion).

M-x org-table-export RET

Export the table, by default as a TAB-separated file. Use for data
exchange with, for example, spreadsheet or database programs. The format
used to export the file can be configured in the option
org-table-export-default-format. You may also use properties
TABLE_EXPORT_FILE and TABLE_EXPORT_FORMAT to specify the file
name and the format for table export in a subtree. Org supports quite
general formats for exported tables. The exporter format is the same as the
format used by Orgtbl radio tables, see Translator functions, for a
detailed description.

If you don’t like the automatic table editor because it gets in your
way on lines which you would like to start with ‘|’, you can turn
it off with

(setq org-enable-table-editor nil)

Then the only table command that still works is
C-c C-c to do a manual re-align.

3.2 Column width and alignment

The width of columns is automatically determined by the table editor. And
also the alignment of a column is determined automatically from the fraction
of number-like versus non-number fields in the column.

Sometimes a single field or a few fields need to carry more text, leading to
inconveniently wide columns. Or maybe you want to make a table with several
columns having a fixed width, regardless of content. To set27 the width of a column, one field anywhere
in the column may contain just the string ‘<N>’ where ‘N’ is an
integer specifying the width of the column in characters. The next re-align
will then set the width of this column to this value.

Fields that are wider become clipped and end in the string ‘=>’.
Note that the full text is still in the buffer but is hidden.
To see the full text, hold the mouse over the field—a tool-tip window
will show the full content. To edit such a field, use the command
C-c ` (that is C-c followed by the backquote). This will
open a new window with the full field. Edit it and finish with C-c
C-c.

When visiting a file containing a table with narrowed columns, the
necessary character hiding has not yet happened, and the table needs to
be aligned before it looks nice. Setting the option
org-startup-align-all-tables will realign all tables in a file
upon visiting, but also slow down startup. You can also set this option
on a per-file basis with:

#+STARTUP: align
#+STARTUP: noalign

If you would like to overrule the automatic alignment of number-rich columns
to the right and of string-rich column to the left, you can use ‘<r>’,
‘<c>’28 or ‘<l>’ in a similar fashion. You may
also combine alignment and field width like this: ‘<r10>’.

Lines which only contain these formatting cookies will be removed
automatically when exporting the document.

3.3 Column groups

When Org exports tables, it does so by default without vertical
lines because that is visually more satisfying in general. Occasionally
however, vertical lines can be useful to structure a table into groups
of columns, much like horizontal lines can do for groups of rows. In
order to specify column groups, you can use a special row where the
first field contains only ‘/’. The further fields can either
contain ‘<’ to indicate that this column should start a group,
‘>’ to indicate the end of a column, or ‘<>’ (no space between ‘<’
and ‘>’) to make a column
a group of its own. Boundaries between column groups will upon export be
marked with vertical lines. Here is an example:

3.4 The Orgtbl minor mode

If you like the intuitive way the Org table editor works, you
might also want to use it in other modes like Text mode or Mail mode.
The minor mode Orgtbl mode makes this possible. You can always toggle
the mode with M-x orgtbl-mode RET. To turn it on by default, for
example in Message mode, use

(add-hook 'message-mode-hook 'turn-on-orgtbl)

Furthermore, with some special setup, it is possible to maintain tables
in arbitrary syntax with Orgtbl mode. For example, it is possible to
construct LaTeX tables with the underlying ease and power of
Orgtbl mode, including spreadsheet capabilities. For details, see
Tables in arbitrary syntax.

3.5 The spreadsheet

The table editor makes use of the Emacs calc package to implement
spreadsheet-like capabilities. It can also evaluate Emacs Lisp forms to
derive fields from other fields. While fully featured, Org’s implementation
is not identical to other spreadsheets. For example, Org knows the concept
of a column formula that will be applied to all non-header fields in a
column without having to copy the formula to each relevant field. There is
also a formula debugger, and a formula editor with features for highlighting
fields in the table corresponding to the references at the point in the
formula, moving these references by arrow keys

3.5.1 References

To compute fields in the table from other fields, formulas must
reference other fields or ranges. In Org, fields can be referenced
by name, by absolute coordinates, and by relative coordinates. To find
out what the coordinates of a field are, press C-c ? in that
field, or press C-c } to toggle the display of a grid.

Field references

Formulas can reference the value of another field in two ways. Like in
any other spreadsheet, you may reference fields with a letter/number
combination like B3, meaning the 2nd field in the 3rd row.
However, Org prefers29 to use another, more general
representation that looks like this:

@row$column

Column specifications can be absolute like $1,
$2,...$N, or relative to the current column (i.e., the
column of the field which is being computed) like $+1 or $-2.
$< and $> are immutable references to the first and last
column, respectively, and you can use $>>> to indicate the third
column from the right.

The row specification only counts data lines and ignores horizontal separator
lines (hlines). Like with columns, you can use absolute row numbers
@1, @2,...@N, and row numbers relative to the
current row like @+3 or @-1. @< and @> are
immutable references the first and last30 row in the table, respectively. You may also
specify the row relative to one of the hlines: @I refers to the first
hline, @II to the second, etc. @-I refers to the first such
line above the current line, @+I to the first such line below the
current line. You can also write @III+2 which is the second data line
after the third hline in the table.

@0 and $0 refer to the current row and column, respectively,
i.e., to the row/column for the field being computed. Also, if you omit
either the column or the row part of the reference, the current row/column is
implied.

Org’s references with unsigned numbers are fixed references
in the sense that if you use the same reference in the formula for two
different fields, the same field will be referenced each time.
Org’s references with signed numbers are floating
references because the same reference operator can reference different
fields depending on the field being calculated by the formula.

Here are a few examples:

@2$3 2nd row, 3rd column (same as C2)
$5 column 5 in the current row (same as E&)
@2 current column, row 2
@-1$-3 the field one row up, three columns to the left
@-I$2 field just under hline above current row, column 2
@>$5 field in the last row, in column 5

Range references

You may reference a rectangular range of fields by specifying two field
references connected by two dots ‘..’. If both fields are in the
current row, you may simply use ‘$2..$7’, but if at least one field
is in a different row, you need to use the general @row$column
format at least for the first field (i.e the reference must start with
‘@’ in order to be interpreted correctly). Examples:

$1..$3 first three fields in the current row
$P..$Q range, using column names (see under Advanced)
$<<<..$>> start in third column, continue to the one but last
@2$1..@4$3 6 fields between these two fields (same as A2..C4)
@-1$-2..@-1 3 fields in the row above, starting from 2 columns on the left
@I..II between first and second hline, short for @I..@II

Range references return a vector of values that can be fed
into Calc vector functions. Empty fields in ranges are normally suppressed,
so that the vector contains only the non-empty fields. For other options
with the mode switches ‘E’, ‘N’ and examples see Formula syntax for Calc.

Field coordinates in formulas

For Calc formulas and Lisp formulas @# and $# can be used to
get the row or column number of the field where the formula result goes.
The traditional Lisp formula equivalents are org-table-current-dline
and org-table-current-column. Examples:

For the second example, table FOO must have at least as many rows
as the current table. Note that this is inefficient31 for large
number of rows.

Named references

‘$name’ is interpreted as the name of a column, parameter or
constant. Constants are defined globally through the option
org-table-formula-constants, and locally (for the file) through a
line like

#+CONSTANTS: c=299792458. pi=3.14 eps=2.4e-6

Also properties (see Properties and Columns) can be used as
constants in table formulas: for a property ‘:Xyz:’ use the name
‘$PROP_Xyz’, and the property will be searched in the current
outline entry and in the hierarchy above it. If you have the
constants.el package, it will also be used to resolve constants,
including natural constants like ‘$h’ for Planck’s constant, and
units like ‘$km’ for kilometers32. Column names and parameters can be specified in special table
lines. These are described below, see Advanced features. All
names must start with a letter, and further consist of letters and
numbers.

Remote references

You may also reference constants, fields and ranges from a different table,
either in the current file or even in a different file. The syntax is

remote(NAME-OR-ID,REF)

where NAME can be the name of a table in the current file as set by a
#+NAME: Name line before the table. It can also be the ID of an
entry, even in a different file, and the reference then refers to the first
table in that entry. REF is an absolute field or range reference as
described above for example @3$3 or $somename, valid in the
referenced table.

3.5.2 Formula syntax for Calc

A formula can be any algebraic expression understood by the Emacs Calc
package. Note that calc has the non-standard convention that ‘/’
has lower precedence than ‘*’, so that ‘a/b*c’ is interpreted as
‘a/(b*c)’. Before evaluation by calc-eval (see Calling Calc from Your Lisp Programs in GNU Emacs Calc Manual), variable substitution takes place according to the
rules described above.
The range vectors can be directly fed into the Calc vector functions
like ‘vmean’ and ‘vsum’.

A formula can contain an optional mode string after a semicolon. This
string consists of flags to influence Calc and other modes during
execution. By default, Org uses the standard Calc modes (precision
12, angular units degrees, fraction and symbolic modes off). The display
format, however, has been changed to (float 8) to keep tables
compact. The default settings can be configured using the option
org-calc-default-modes.

List of modes:

p20

Set the internal Calc calculation precision to 20 digits.

n3, s3, e2, f4

Normal, scientific, engineering or fixed format of the result of Calc passed
back to Org. Calc formatting is unlimited in precision as long as the Calc
calculation precision is greater.

If and how to consider empty fields. Without ‘E’ empty fields in range
references are suppressed so that the Calc vector or Lisp list contains only
the non-empty fields. With ‘E’ the empty fields are kept. For empty
fields in ranges or empty field references the value ‘nan’ (not a
number) is used in Calc formulas and the empty string is used for Lisp
formulas. Add ‘N’ to use 0 instead for both formula types. For the
value of a field the mode ‘N’ has higher precedence than ‘E’.

N

Interpret all fields as numbers, use 0 for non-numbers. See the next section
to see how this is essential for computations with Lisp formulas. In Calc
formulas it is used only occasionally because there number strings are
already interpreted as numbers without ‘N’.

L

Literal, for Lisp formulas only. See the next section.

Unless you use large integer numbers or high-precision-calculation and
-display for floating point numbers you may alternatively provide a
‘printf’ format specifier to reformat the Calc result after it has been
passed back to Org instead of letting Calc already do the
formatting33. A
few examples:

$1+$2 Sum of first and second field
$1+$2;%.2f Same, format result to two decimals
exp($2)+exp($1) Math functions can be used
$0;%.1f Reformat current cell to 1 decimal
($3-32)*5/9 Degrees F -> C conversion
$c/$1/$cm Hz -> cm conversion, using constants.el
tan($1);Dp3s1 Compute in degrees, precision 3, display SCI 1
sin($1);Dp3%.1e Same, but use printf specifier for display
taylor($3,x=7,2) Taylor series of $3, at x=7, second degree

Calc also contains a complete set of logical operations, (see Logical Operations in GNU Emacs Calc Manual). For example

if($1 < 20, teen, string(""))

"teen" if age $1 is less than 20, else the Org table result field is set to
empty with the empty string.

if("$1" == "nan" || "$2" == "nan", string(""), $1 + $2); E f-1

Sum of the first two columns. When at least one of the input fields is empty
the Org table result field is set to empty. ‘E’ is required to not
convert empty fields to 0. ‘f-1’ is an optional Calc format string
similar to ‘%.1f’ but leaves empty results empty.

if(typeof(vmean($1..$7)) == 12, string(""), vmean($1..$7); E

Mean value of a range unless there is any empty field. Every field in the
range that is empty is replaced by ‘nan’ which lets ‘vmean’ result
in ‘nan’. Then ‘typeof == 12’ detects the ‘nan’ from
‘vmean’ and the Org table result field is set to empty. Use this when
the sample set is expected to never have missing values.

if("$1..$7" == "[]", string(""), vmean($1..$7))

Mean value of a range with empty fields skipped. Every field in the range
that is empty is skipped. When all fields in the range are empty the mean
value is not defined and the Org table result field is set to empty. Use
this when the sample set can have a variable size.

vmean($1..$7); EN

To complete the example before: Mean value of a range with empty fields
counting as samples with value 0. Use this only when incomplete sample sets
should be padded with 0 to the full size.

You can add your own Calc functions defined in Emacs Lisp with defmath
and use them in formula syntax for Calc.

3.5.3 Emacs Lisp forms as formulas

It is also possible to write a formula in Emacs Lisp. This can be useful
for string manipulation and control structures, if Calc’s functionality is
not enough.

If a formula starts with a single-quote followed by an opening parenthesis,
then it is evaluated as a Lisp form. The evaluation should return either a
string or a number. Just as with calc formulas, you can specify modes
and a printf format after a semicolon.

With Emacs Lisp forms, you need to be conscious about the way field
references are interpolated into the form. By default, a reference will be
interpolated as a Lisp string (in double-quotes) containing the field. If
you provide the ‘N’ mode switch, all referenced elements will be numbers
(non-number fields will be zero) and interpolated as Lisp numbers, without
quotes. If you provide the ‘L’ flag, all fields will be interpolated
literally, without quotes. I.e., if you want a reference to be interpreted
as a string by the Lisp form, enclose the reference operator itself in
double-quotes, like "$3". Ranges are inserted as space-separated
fields, so you can embed them in list or vector syntax.

Here are a few examples—note how the ‘N’ mode is used when we do
computations in Lisp:

Input duration values must be of the form [HH:MM[:SS], where seconds
are optional. With the T flag, computed durations will be displayed
as HH:MM:SS (see the first formula above). With the t flag,
computed durations will be displayed according to the value of the option
org-table-duration-custom-format, which defaults to 'hours and
will display the result as a fraction of hours (see the second formula in the
example above).

Negative duration values can be manipulated as well, and integers will be
considered as seconds in addition and subtraction.

3.5.5 Field and range formulas

To assign a formula to a particular field, type it directly into the field,
preceded by ‘:=’, for example ‘:=vsum(@II..III)’. When you press
TAB or RET or C-c C-c with the cursor still in the field,
the formula will be stored as the formula for this field, evaluated, and the
current field will be replaced with the result.

Formulas are stored in a special line starting with ‘#+TBLFM:’ directly
below the table. If you type the equation in the 4th field of the 3rd data
line in the table, the formula will look like ‘@3$4=$1+$2’. When
inserting/deleting/swapping column and rows with the appropriate commands,
absolute references (but not relative ones) in stored formulas are
modified in order to still reference the same field. To avoid this from
happening, in particular in range references, anchor ranges at the table
borders (using @<, @>, $<, $>), or at hlines
using the @I notation. Automatic adaptation of field references does
of course not happen if you edit the table structure with normal editing
commands—then you must fix the equations yourself.

Instead of typing an equation into the field, you may also use the following
command

C-u C-c = (org-table-eval-formula)

Install a new formula for the current field. The command prompts for a
formula with default taken from the ‘#+TBLFM:’ line, applies
it to the current field, and stores it.

The left-hand side of a formula can also be a special expression in order to
assign the formula to a number of different fields. There is no keyboard
shortcut to enter such range formulas. To add them, use the formula editor
(see Editing and debugging formulas) or edit the #+TBLFM: line
directly.

$2=

Column formula, valid for the entire column. This is so common that Org
treats these formulas in a special way, see Column formulas.

@3=

Row formula, applies to all fields in the specified row. @>= means
the last row.

@1$2..@4$3=

Range formula, applies to all fields in the given rectangular range. This
can also be used to assign a formula to some but not all fields in a row.

3.5.6 Column formulas

When you assign a formula to a simple column reference like $3=, the
same formula will be used in all fields of that column, with the following
very convenient exceptions: (i) If the table contains horizontal separator
hlines with rows above and below, everything before the first such hline is
considered part of the table header and will not be modified by column
formulas. Therefore a header is mandatory when you use column formulas and
want to add hlines to group rows, like for example to separate a total row at
the bottom from the summand rows above. (ii) Fields that already get a value
from a field/range formula will be left alone by column formulas. These
conditions make column formulas very easy to use.

To assign a formula to a column, type it directly into any field in the
column, preceded by an equal sign, like ‘=$1+$2’. When you press
TAB or RET or C-c C-c with the cursor still in the field,
the formula will be stored as the formula for the current column, evaluated
and the current field replaced with the result. If the field contains only
‘=’, the previously stored formula for this column is used. For each
column, Org will only remember the most recently used formula. In the
‘#+TBLFM:’ line, column formulas will look like ‘$4=$1+$2’. The
left-hand side of a column formula can not be the name of column, it must be
the numeric column reference or $>.

Instead of typing an equation into the field, you may also use the
following command:

C-c = (org-table-eval-formula)

Install a new formula for the current column and replace current field with
the result of the formula. The command prompts for a formula, with default
taken from the ‘#+TBLFM’ line, applies it to the current field and
stores it. With a numeric prefix argument(e.g., C-5 C-c =) the command
will apply it to that many consecutive fields in the current column.

3.5.7 Lookup functions

Org has three predefined Emacs Lisp functions for lookups in tables.

(org-lookup-first VAL S-LIST R-LIST &optional PREDICATE)

Searches for the first element S in list S-LIST for which

(PREDICATE VAL S)

is t; returns the value from the corresponding position in list
R-LIST. The default PREDICATE is equal. Note that the
parameters VAL and S are passed to PREDICATE in the same
order as the corresponding parameters are in the call to
org-lookup-first, where VAL precedes S-LIST. If
R-LIST is nil, the matching element S of S-LIST
is returned.

(org-lookup-last VAL S-LIST R-LIST &optional PREDICATE)

Similar to org-lookup-first above, but searches for the last
element for which PREDICATE is t.

(org-lookup-all VAL S-LIST R-LIST &optional PREDICATE)

Similar to org-lookup-first, but searches for all elements for
which PREDICATE is t, and returns all corresponding
values. This function can not be used by itself in a formula, because it
returns a list of values. However, powerful lookups can be built when this
function is combined with other Emacs Lisp functions.

If the ranges used in these functions contain empty fields, the E mode
for the formula should usually be specified: otherwise empty fields will not be
included in S-LIST and/or R-LIST which can, for example, result
in an incorrect mapping from an element of S-LIST to the corresponding
element of R-LIST.

These three functions can be used to implement associative arrays, count
matching cells, rank results, group data etc. For practical examples
see this
tutorial on Worg.

3.5.8 Editing and debugging formulas

You can edit individual formulas in the minibuffer or directly in the field.
Org can also prepare a special buffer with all active formulas of a table.
When offering a formula for editing, Org converts references to the standard
format (like B3 or D&) if possible. If you prefer to only work
with the internal format (like @3$2 or $4), configure the
option org-table-use-standard-references.

Re-insert the active formula (either a
field formula, or a column formula) into the current field, so that you
can edit it directly in the field. The advantage over editing in the
minibuffer is that you can use the command C-c ?.

C-c ? (org-table-field-info)

While editing a formula in a table field, highlight the field(s)
referenced by the reference at the cursor position in the formula.

C-c }

Toggle the display of row and column numbers for a table, using overlays
(org-table-toggle-coordinate-overlays). These are updated each
time the table is aligned; you can force it with C-c C-c.

C-c {

Toggle the formula debugger on and off
(org-table-toggle-formula-debugger). See below.

C-c ' (org-table-edit-formulas)

Edit all formulas for the current table in a special buffer, where the
formulas will be displayed one per line. If the current field has an
active formula, the cursor in the formula editor will mark it.
While inside the special buffer, Org will automatically highlight
any field or range reference at the cursor position. You may edit,
remove and add formulas, and use the following commands:

C-c C-corC-x C-s (org-table-fedit-finish)

Exit the formula editor and store the modified formulas. With C-u
prefix, also apply the new formulas to the entire table.

C-c C-q (org-table-fedit-abort)

Exit the formula editor without installing changes.

C-c C-r (org-table-fedit-toggle-ref-type)

Toggle all references in the formula editor between standard (like
B3) and internal (like @3$2).

TAB (org-table-fedit-lisp-indent)

Pretty-print or indent Lisp formula at point. When in a line containing
a Lisp formula, format the formula according to Emacs Lisp rules.
Another TAB collapses the formula back again. In the open
formula, TAB re-indents just like in Emacs Lisp mode.

M-TAB (lisp-complete-symbol)

Complete Lisp symbols, just like in Emacs Lisp mode.

S-up/down/left/right

Shift the reference at point. For example, if the reference is
B3 and you press S-right, it will become C3.
This also works for relative references and for hline references.

M-S-up (org-table-fedit-line-up)

M-S-down (org-table-fedit-line-down)

Move the test line for column formulas in the Org buffer up and
down.

M-up (org-table-fedit-scroll-down)

M-down (org-table-fedit-scroll-up)

Scroll the window displaying the table.

C-c }

Turn the coordinate grid in the table on and off.

Making a table field blank does not remove the formula associated with
the field, because that is stored in a different line (the ‘#+TBLFM’
line)—during the next recalculation the field will be filled again.
To remove a formula from a field, you have to give an empty reply when
prompted for the formula, or to edit the ‘#+TBLFM’ line.

You may edit the ‘#+TBLFM’ directly and re-apply the changed
equations with C-c C-c in that line or with the normal
recalculation commands in the table.

Using multiple #+TBLFM lines

You may apply the formula temporarily. This is useful when you
switch the formula. Place multiple ‘#+TBLFM’ lines right
after the table, and then press C-c C-c on the formula to
apply. Here is an example:

Debugging formulas

When the evaluation of a formula leads to an error, the field content
becomes the string ‘#ERROR’. If you would like see what is going
on during variable substitution and calculation in order to find a bug,
turn on formula debugging in the Tbl menu and repeat the
calculation, for example by pressing C-u C-u C-c = RET in a
field. Detailed information will be displayed.

3.5.10 Advanced features

If you want the recalculation of fields to happen automatically, or if you
want to be able to assign names34 to
fields and columns, you need to reserve the first column of the table for
special marking characters.

C-# (org-table-rotate-recalc-marks)

Rotate the calculation mark in first column through the states ‘’,
‘#’, ‘*’, ‘!’, ‘$’. When there is an active region,
change all marks in the region.

Here is an example of a table that collects exam results of students and
makes use of these features:

Important: please note that for these special tables,
recalculating the table with C-u C-c * will only affect rows that
are marked ‘#’ or ‘*’, and fields that have a formula assigned
to the field itself. The column formulas are not applied in rows with
empty first field.

The marking characters have the following meaning:

‘!’

The fields in this line define names for the columns, so that you may
refer to a column as ‘$Tot’ instead of ‘$6’.

‘^’

This row defines names for the fields above the row. With such
a definition, any formula in the table may use ‘$m1’ to refer to
the value ‘10’. Also, if you assign a formula to a names field, it
will be stored as ‘$name=...’.

‘_’

Similar to ‘^’, but defines names for the fields in the row
below.

‘$’

Fields in this row can define parameters for formulas. For
example, if a field in a ‘$’ row contains ‘max=50’, then
formulas in this table can refer to the value 50 using ‘$max’.
Parameters work exactly like constants, only that they can be defined on
a per-table basis.

‘#’

Fields in this row are automatically recalculated when pressing
TAB or RET or S-TAB in this row. Also, this row
is selected for a global recalculation with C-u C-c *. Unmarked
lines will be left alone by this command.

‘*’

Selects this line for global recalculation with C-u C-c *, but
not for automatic recalculation. Use this when automatic
recalculation slows down editing too much.

‘’

Unmarked lines are exempt from recalculation with C-u C-c *.
All lines that should be recalculated should be marked with ‘#’
or ‘*’.

‘/’

Do not export this line. Useful for lines that contain the narrowing
‘<N>’ markers or column group markers.

Finally, just to whet your appetite for what can be done with the
fantastic calc.el package, here is a table that computes the Taylor
series of degree n at location x for a couple of
functions.

3.6 Org-Plot

Org-Plot can produce 2D and 3D graphs of information stored in org tables
using Gnuplothttp://www.gnuplot.info/ and gnuplot-modehttp://xafs.org/BruceRavel/GnuplotMode. To see this in action, ensure
that you have both Gnuplot and Gnuplot mode installed on your system, then
call org-plot/gnuplot on the following table.

Notice that Org Plot is smart enough to apply the table’s headers as labels.
Further control over the labels, type, content, and appearance of plots can
be exercised through the #+PLOT: lines preceding a table. See below
for a complete list of Org-plot options. For more information and examples
see the Org-plot tutorial at
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-plot.html.

Plot Options

set

Specify any gnuplot option to be set when graphing.

title

Specify the title of the plot.

ind

Specify which column of the table to use as the x axis.

deps

Specify the columns to graph as a Lisp style list, surrounded by parentheses
and separated by spaces for example dep:(3 4) to graph the third and
fourth columns (defaults to graphing all other columns aside from the ind
column).

type

Specify whether the plot will be 2d, 3d, or grid.

with

Specify a with option to be inserted for every col being plotted
(e.g., lines, points, boxes, impulses, etc...).
Defaults to lines.

file

If you want to plot to a file, specify "path/to/desired/output-file".

labels

List of labels to be used for the deps (defaults to the column headers
if they exist).

line

Specify an entire line to be inserted in the Gnuplot script.

map

When plotting 3d or grid types, set this to t to graph a
flat mapping rather than a 3d slope.

timefmt

Specify format of Org mode timestamps as they will be parsed by Gnuplot.
Defaults to ‘%Y-%m-%d-%H:%M:%S’.

script

If you want total control, you can specify a script file (place the file name
between double-quotes) which will be used to plot. Before plotting, every
instance of $datafile in the specified script will be replaced with
the path to the generated data file. Note: even if you set this option, you
may still want to specify the plot type, as that can impact the content of
the data file.

4.1 Link format

Org will recognize plain URL-like links and activate them as
clickable links. The general link format, however, looks like this:

[[link][description]] or alternatively [[link]]

Once a link in the buffer is complete (all brackets present), Org
will change the display so that ‘description’ is displayed instead
of ‘[[link][description]]’ and ‘link’ is displayed instead of
‘[[link]]’. Links will be highlighted in the face org-link,
which by default is an underlined face. You can directly edit the
visible part of a link. Note that this can be either the ‘link’
part (if there is no description) or the ‘description’ part. To
edit also the invisible ‘link’ part, use C-c C-l with the
cursor on the link.

If you place the cursor at the beginning or just behind the end of the
displayed text and press BACKSPACE, you will remove the
(invisible) bracket at that location. This makes the link incomplete
and the internals are again displayed as plain text. Inserting the
missing bracket hides the link internals again. To show the
internal structure of all links, use the menu entry
Org->Hyperlinks->Literal links.

4.2 Internal links

If the link does not look like a URL, it is considered to be internal in the
current file. The most important case is a link like
‘[[#my-custom-id]]’ which will link to the entry with the
CUSTOM_ID property ‘my-custom-id’. You are responsible yourself
to make sure these custom IDs are unique in a file.

Links such as ‘[[My Target]]’ or ‘[[My Target][Find my target]]’
lead to a text search in the current file.

The link can be followed with C-c C-o when the cursor is on the link,
or with a mouse click (see Handling links). Links to custom IDs will
point to the corresponding headline. The preferred match for a text link is
a dedicated target: the same string in double angular brackets, like
‘<<My Target>>’.

If no dedicated target exists, the link will then try to match the exact name
of an element within the buffer. Naming is done with the #+NAME
keyword, which has to be put the line before the element it refers to, as in
the following example

If none of the above succeeds, Org will search for a headline that is exactly
the link text but may also include a TODO keyword and tags35.

During export, internal links will be used to mark objects and assign them
a number. Marked objects will then be referenced by links pointing to them.
In particular, links without a description will appear as the number assigned
to the marked object36. In the following excerpt from an Org buffer

- one item
- <<target>>another item
Here we refer to item [[target]].

The last sentence will appear as ‘Here we refer to item 2’ when
exported.

In non-Org files, the search will look for the words in the link text. In
the above example the search would be for ‘my target’.

Following a link pushes a mark onto Org’s own mark ring. You can
return to the previous position with C-c &. Using this command
several times in direct succession goes back to positions recorded
earlier.

4.2.1 Radio targets

Org can automatically turn any occurrences of certain target names
in normal text into a link. So without explicitly creating a link, the
text connects to the target radioing its position. Radio targets are
enclosed by triple angular brackets. For example, a target ‘<<<My
Target>>>’ causes each occurrence of ‘my target’ in normal text to
become activated as a link. The Org file is scanned automatically
for radio targets only when the file is first loaded into Emacs. To
update the target list during editing, press C-c C-c with the
cursor on or at a target.

4.3 External links

Org supports links to files, websites, Usenet and email messages, BBDB
database entries and links to both IRC conversations and their logs.
External links are URL-like locators. They start with a short identifying
string followed by a colon. There can be no space after the colon. The
following list shows examples for each link type.

On top of these built-in link types, some are available through the
contrib/ directory (see Installation). For example, these links
to VM or Wanderlust messages are available when you load the corresponding
libraries from the contrib/ directory:

A link should be enclosed in double brackets and may contain a descriptive
text to be displayed instead of the URL (see Link format), for example:

[[http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][GNU Emacs]]

If the description is a file name or URL that points to an image, HTML
export (see HTML export) will inline the image as a clickable
button. If there is no description at all and the link points to an
image,
that image will be inlined into the exported HTML file.

Org also finds external links in the normal text and activates them
as links. If spaces must be part of the link (for example in
‘bbdb:Richard Stallman’), or if you need to remove ambiguities
about the end of the link, enclose them in square brackets.

4.4 Handling links

Org provides methods to create a link in the correct syntax, to
insert it into an Org file, and to follow the link.

C-c l (org-store-link)

Store a link to the current location. This is a global command (you
must create the key binding yourself) which can be used in any buffer to
create a link. The link will be stored for later insertion into an Org
buffer (see below). What kind of link will be created depends on the current
buffer:

Org mode buffers
For Org files, if there is a ‘<<target>>’ at the cursor, the link points
to the target. Otherwise it points to the current headline, which will also
be the description38.

If the headline has a CUSTOM_ID property, a link to this custom ID
will be stored. In addition or alternatively (depending on the value of
org-id-link-to-org-use-id), a globally unique ID property will
be created and/or used to construct a link39. So using this command in Org buffers will
potentially create two links: a human-readable from the custom ID, and one
that is globally unique and works even if the entry is moved from file to
file. Later, when inserting the link, you need to decide which one to use.

Email/News clients: VM, Rmail, Wanderlust, MH-E, Gnus
Pretty much all Emacs mail clients are supported. The link will point to the
current article, or, in some GNUS buffers, to the group. The description is
constructed from the author and the subject.

Web browsers: W3 and W3M
Here the link will be the current URL, with the page title as description.

Contacts: BBDB
Links created in a BBDB buffer will point to the current entry.

Chat: IRC
For IRC links, if you set the option org-irc-link-to-logs to t,
a ‘file:/’ style link to the relevant point in the logs for the current
conversation is created. Otherwise an ‘irc:/’ style link to the
user/channel/server under the point will be stored.

Other files
For any other files, the link will point to the file, with a search string
(see Search options) pointing to the contents of the current line. If
there is an active region, the selected words will form the basis of the
search string. If the automatically created link is not working correctly or
accurately enough, you can write custom functions to select the search string
and to do the search for particular file types—see Custom searches.
The key binding C-c l is only a suggestion—see Installation.

Agenda view
When the cursor is in an agenda view, the created link points to the
entry referenced by the current line.

C-c C-l (org-insert-link)

Insert a link40. This prompts for a link to be inserted into the buffer.
You can just type a link, using text for an internal link, or one of the link
type prefixes mentioned in the examples above. The link will be inserted
into the buffer41, along with a descriptive text.
If some text was selected when this command is called, the selected text
becomes the default description.

Inserting stored links
All links stored during the
current session are part of the history for this prompt, so you can access
them with up and down (or M-p/n).

Completion support Completion with TAB will help you to insert
valid link prefixes like ‘http:’ or ‘ftp:’, including the prefixes
defined through link abbreviations (see Link abbreviations). If you
press RET after inserting only the prefix, Org will offer
specific completion support for some link types42 For
example, if you type file RET, file name completion (alternative
access: C-u C-c C-l, see below) will be offered, and after bbdb
RET you can complete contact names.

C-u C-c C-l

When C-c C-l is called with a C-u prefix argument, a link to
a file will be inserted and you may use file name completion to select
the name of the file. The path to the file is inserted relative to the
directory of the current Org file, if the linked file is in the current
directory or in a sub-directory of it, or if the path is written relative
to the current directory using ‘../’. Otherwise an absolute path
is used, if possible with ‘~/’ for your home directory. You can
force an absolute path with two C-u prefixes.

C-c C-l (with cursor on existing link)

When the cursor is on an existing link, C-c C-l allows you to edit the
link and description parts of the link.

C-c C-o (org-open-at-point)

Open link at point. This will launch a web browser for URLs (using
browse-url-at-point), run VM/MH-E/Wanderlust/Rmail/Gnus/BBDB for
the corresponding links, and execute the command in a shell link. When the
cursor is on an internal link, this command runs the corresponding search.
When the cursor is on a TAG list in a headline, it creates the corresponding
TAGS view. If the cursor is on a timestamp, it compiles the agenda for that
date. Furthermore, it will visit text and remote files in ‘file:’ links
with Emacs and select a suitable application for local non-text files.
Classification of files is based on file extension only. See option
org-file-apps. If you want to override the default application and
visit the file with Emacs, use a C-u prefix. If you want to avoid
opening in Emacs, use a C-u C-u prefix.
If the cursor is on a headline, but not on a link, offer all links in the
headline and entry text. If you want to setup the frame configuration for
following links, customize org-link-frame-setup.

RET

When org-return-follows-link is set, RET will also follow
the link at point.

mouse-2

mouse-1

On links, mouse-2 will open the link just as C-c C-o
would. Under Emacs 22 and later, mouse-1 will also follow a link.

mouse-3

Like mouse-2, but force file links to be opened with Emacs, and
internal links to be displayed in another window43.

C-c C-x C-v (org-toggle-inline-images)

Toggle the inline display of linked images. Normally this will only inline
images that have no description part in the link, i.e., images that will also
be inlined during export. When called with a prefix argument, also display
images that do have a link description. You can ask for inline images to be
displayed at startup by configuring the variable
org-startup-with-inline-images44.

C-c % (org-mark-ring-push)

Push the current position onto the mark ring, to be able to return
easily. Commands following an internal link do this automatically.

C-c & (org-mark-ring-goto)

Jump back to a recorded position. A position is recorded by the
commands following internal links, and by C-c %. Using this
command several times in direct succession moves through a ring of
previously recorded positions.

C-c C-x C-n (org-next-link)

C-c C-x C-p (org-previous-link)

Move forward/backward to the next link in the buffer. At the limit of
the buffer, the search fails once, and then wraps around. The key
bindings for this are really too long; you might want to bind this also
to C-n and C-p

4.6 Link abbreviations

Long URLs can be cumbersome to type, and often many similar links are
needed in a document. For this you can use link abbreviations. An
abbreviated link looks like this

[[linkword:tag][description]]

where the tag is optional.
The linkword must be a word, starting with a letter, followed by
letters, numbers, ‘-’, and ‘_’. Abbreviations are resolved
according to the information in the variable org-link-abbrev-alist
that relates the linkwords to replacement text. Here is an example:

If the replacement text contains the string ‘%s’, it will be
replaced with the tag. Using ‘%h’ instead of ‘%s’ will
url-encode the tag (see the example above, where we need to encode
the URL parameter.) Using ‘%(my-function)’ will pass the tag
to a custom function, and replace it by the resulting string.

If the replacement text don’t contain any specifier, it will simply
be appended to the string in order to create the link.

Instead of a string, you may also specify a function that will be
called with the tag as the only argument to create the link.

With the above setting, you could link to a specific bug with
[[bugzilla:129]], search the web for ‘OrgMode’ with
[[google:OrgMode]], show the map location of the Free Software
Foundation [[gmap:51 Franklin Street, Boston]] or of Carsten office
[[omap:Science Park 904, Amsterdam, The Netherlands]] and find out
what the Org author is doing besides Emacs hacking with
[[ads:Dominik,C]].

If you need special abbreviations just for a single Org buffer, you
can define them in the file with

In-buffer completion (see Completion) can be used after ‘[’ to
complete link abbreviations. You may also define a function
org-PREFIX-complete-link that implements special (e.g., completion)
support for inserting such a link with C-c C-l. Such a function should
not accept any arguments, and return the full link with prefix.

4.7 Search options in file links

File links can contain additional information to make Emacs jump to a
particular location in the file when following a link. This can be a
line number or a search option after a double45 colon. For
example, when the command C-c l creates a link (see Handling links) to a file, it encodes the words in the current line as a search
string that can be used to find this line back later when following the
link with C-c C-o.

Here is the syntax of the different ways to attach a search to a file
link, together with an explanation:

Search for a link target ‘<<My Target>>’, or do a text search for
‘my target’, similar to the search in internal links, see
Internal links. In HTML export (see HTML export), such a file
link will become an HTML reference to the corresponding named anchor in
the linked file.

*My Target

In an Org file, restrict search to headlines.

#my-custom-id

Link to a heading with a CUSTOM_ID property

/regexp/

Do a regular expression search for regexp. This uses the Emacs
command occur to list all matches in a separate window. If the
target file is in Org mode, org-occur is used to create a
sparse tree with the matches.

As a degenerate case, a file link with an empty file name can be used
to search the current file. For example, [[file:::find me]] does
a search for ‘find me’ in the current file, just as
‘[[find me]]’ would.

4.8 Custom Searches

The default mechanism for creating search strings and for doing the
actual search related to a file link may not work correctly in all
cases. For example, BibTeX database files have many entries like
‘year="1993"’ which would not result in good search strings,
because the only unique identification for a BibTeX entry is the
citation key.

If you come across such a problem, you can write custom functions to set
the right search string for a particular file type, and to do the search
for the string in the file. Using add-hook, these functions need
to be added to the hook variables
org-create-file-search-functions and
org-execute-file-search-functions. See the docstring for these
variables for more information. Org actually uses this mechanism
for BibTeX database files, and you can use the corresponding code as
an implementation example. See the file org-bibtex.el.

5 TODO items

Org mode does not maintain TODO lists as separate documents46. Instead, TODO items are an integral part of the
notes file, because TODO items usually come up while taking notes! With Org
mode, simply mark any entry in a tree as being a TODO item. In this way,
information is not duplicated, and the entire context from which the TODO
item emerged is always present.

Of course, this technique for managing TODO items scatters them
throughout your notes file. Org mode compensates for this by providing
methods to give you an overview of all the things that you have to do.

5.1 Basic TODO functionality

Any headline becomes a TODO item when it starts with the word
‘TODO’, for example:

*** TODO Write letter to Sam Fortune

The most important commands to work with TODO entries are:

C-c C-t (org-todo)

Rotate the TODO state of the current item among

,-> (unmarked) -> TODO -> DONE --.
'--------------------------------'

If TODO keywords have fast access keys (see Fast access to TODO states), you will be prompted for a TODO keyword through the fast selection
interface; this is the default behavior when
org-use-fast-todo-selection is non-nil.

The same rotation can also be done “remotely” from the timeline and agenda
buffers with the t command key (see Agenda commands).

C-u C-c C-t

When TODO keywords have no selection keys, select a specific keyword using
completion; otherwise force cycling through TODO states with no prompt. When
org-use-fast-todo-selection is set to prefix, use the fast
selection interface.

S-right/ S-left

Select the following/preceding TODO state, similar to cycling. Useful
mostly if more than two TODO states are possible (see TODO extensions). See also Conflicts, for a discussion of the interaction
with shift-selection-mode. See also the variable
org-treat-S-cursor-todo-selection-as-state-change.

C-c / t (org-show-todo-tree)

View TODO items in a sparse tree (see Sparse trees). Folds the
entire buffer, but shows all TODO items (with not-DONE state) and the
headings hierarchy above them. With a prefix argument (or by using C-c
/ T), search for a specific TODO. You will be prompted for the keyword,
and you can also give a list of keywords like KWD1|KWD2|... to list
entries that match any one of these keywords. With a numeric prefix argument
N, show the tree for the Nth keyword in the option org-todo-keywords.
With two prefix arguments, find all TODO states, both un-done and done.

C-c a t (org-todo-list)

Show the global TODO list. Collects the TODO items (with not-DONE states)
from all agenda files (see Agenda Views) into a single buffer. The new
buffer will be in agenda-mode, which provides commands to examine and
manipulate the TODO entries from the new buffer (see Agenda commands).
See Global TODO list, for more information.

S-M-RET (org-insert-todo-heading)

Insert a new TODO entry below the current one.

Changing a TODO state can also trigger tag changes. See the docstring of the
option org-todo-state-tags-triggers for details.

5.2 Extended use of TODO keywords

By default, marked TODO entries have one of only two states: TODO and
DONE. Org mode allows you to classify TODO items in more complex ways
with TODO keywords (stored in org-todo-keywords). With
special setup, the TODO keyword system can work differently in different
files.

Note that tags are another way to classify headlines in general and
TODO items in particular (see Tags).

The vertical bar separates the TODO keywords (states that need
action) from the DONE states (which need no further action). If
you don’t provide the separator bar, the last state is used as the DONE
state.
With this setup, the command C-c C-t will cycle an entry from TODO
to FEEDBACK, then to VERIFY, and finally to DONE and DELEGATED. You may
also use a numeric prefix argument to quickly select a specific state. For
example C-3 C-c C-t will change the state immediately to VERIFY.
Or you can use S-left to go backward through the sequence. If you
define many keywords, you can use in-buffer completion
(see Completion) or even a special one-key selection scheme
(see Fast access to TODO states) to insert these words into the
buffer. Changing a TODO state can be logged with a timestamp, see
Tracking TODO state changes, for more information.

5.2.2 TODO keywords as types

The second possibility is to use TODO keywords to indicate different
types of action items. For example, you might want to indicate
that items are for “work” or “home”. Or, when you work with several
people on a single project, you might want to assign action items
directly to persons, by using their names as TODO keywords. This would
be set up like this:

(setq org-todo-keywords '((type "Fred" "Sara" "Lucy" "|" "DONE")))

In this case, different keywords do not indicate a sequence, but rather
different types. So the normal work flow would be to assign a task to a
person, and later to mark it DONE. Org mode supports this style by adapting
the workings of the command C-c C-t48. When used several
times in succession, it will still cycle through all names, in order to first
select the right type for a task. But when you return to the item after some
time and execute C-c C-t again, it will switch from any name directly
to DONE. Use prefix arguments or completion to quickly select a specific
name. You can also review the items of a specific TODO type in a sparse tree
by using a numeric prefix to C-c / t. For example, to see all things
Lucy has to do, you would use C-3 C-c / t. To collect Lucy’s items
from all agenda files into a single buffer, you would use the numeric prefix
argument as well when creating the global TODO list: C-3 C-c a t.

5.2.3 Multiple keyword sets in one file

Sometimes you may want to use different sets of TODO keywords in
parallel. For example, you may want to have the basic
TODO/DONE, but also a workflow for bug fixing, and a
separate state indicating that an item has been canceled (so it is not
DONE, but also does not require action). Your setup would then look
like this:

The keywords should all be different, this helps Org mode to keep track
of which subsequence should be used for a given entry. In this setup,
C-c C-t only operates within a subsequence, so it switches from
DONE to (nothing) to TODO, and from FIXED to
(nothing) to REPORT. Therefore you need a mechanism to initially
select the correct sequence. Besides the obvious ways like typing a
keyword or using completion, you may also apply the following commands:

C-u C-u C-c C-t

C-S-right

C-S-left

These keys jump from one TODO subset to the next. In the above example,
C-u C-u C-c C-t or C-S-right would jump from TODO or
DONE to REPORT, and any of the words in the second row to
CANCELED. Note that the C-S- key binding conflict with
shift-selection-mode (see Conflicts).

S-right

S-left

S-<left> and S-<right> and walk through all
keywords from all sets, so for example S-<right> would switch
from DONE to REPORT in the example above. See also
Conflicts, for a discussion of the interaction with
shift-selection-mode.

5.2.4 Fast access to TODO states

If you would like to quickly change an entry to an arbitrary TODO state
instead of cycling through the states, you can set up keys for single-letter
access to the states. This is done by adding the selection character after
each keyword, in parentheses49. For example:

5.2.5 Setting up keywords for individual files

It can be very useful to use different aspects of the TODO mechanism in
different files. For file-local settings, you need to add special lines
to the file which set the keywords and interpretation for that file
only. For example, to set one of the two examples discussed above, you
need one of the following lines, starting in column zero anywhere in the
file:

#+TODO: TODO FEEDBACK VERIFY | DONE CANCELED

(you may also write #+SEQ_TODO to be explicit about the
interpretation, but it means the same as #+TODO), or

To make sure you are using the correct keyword, type
‘#+’ into the buffer and then use M-TAB completion.

Remember that the keywords after the vertical bar (or the last keyword
if no bar is there) must always mean that the item is DONE (although you
may use a different word). After changing one of these lines, use
C-c C-c with the cursor still in the line to make the changes
known to Org mode51.

5.2.6 Faces for TODO keywords

Org mode highlights TODO keywords with special faces: org-todo
for keywords indicating that an item still has to be acted upon, and
org-done for keywords indicating that an item is finished. If
you are using more than 2 different states, you might want to use
special faces for some of them. This can be done using the option
org-todo-keyword-faces. For example:

While using a list with face properties as shown for CANCELED should
work, this does not always seem to be the case. If necessary, define a
special face and use that. A string is interpreted as a color. The option
org-faces-easy-properties determines if that color is interpreted as a
foreground or a background color.

5.2.7 TODO dependencies

The structure of Org files (hierarchy and lists) makes it easy to define TODO
dependencies. Usually, a parent TODO task should not be marked DONE until
all subtasks (defined as children tasks) are marked as DONE. And sometimes
there is a logical sequence to a number of (sub)tasks, so that one task
cannot be acted upon before all siblings above it are done. If you customize
the option org-enforce-todo-dependencies, Org will block entries
from changing state to DONE while they have children that are not DONE.
Furthermore, if an entry has a property ORDERED, each of its children
will be blocked until all earlier siblings are marked DONE. Here is an
example:

Toggle the ORDERED property of the current entry. A property is used
for this behavior because this should be local to the current entry, not
inherited like a tag. However, if you would like to track the value of
this property with a tag for better visibility, customize the option
org-track-ordered-property-with-tag.

C-u C-u C-u C-c C-t

Change TODO state, circumventing any state blocking.

If you set the option org-agenda-dim-blocked-tasks, TODO entries
that cannot be closed because of such dependencies will be shown in a dimmed
font or even made invisible in agenda views (see Agenda Views).

You can also block changes of TODO states by looking at checkboxes
(see Checkboxes). If you set the option
org-enforce-todo-checkbox-dependencies, an entry that has unchecked
checkboxes will be blocked from switching to DONE.

If you need more complex dependency structures, for example dependencies
between entries in different trees or files, check out the contributed
module org-depend.el.

5.3 Progress logging

Org mode can automatically record a timestamp and possibly a note when
you mark a TODO item as DONE, or even each time you change the state of
a TODO item. This system is highly configurable; settings can be on a
per-keyword basis and can be localized to a file or even a subtree. For
information on how to clock working time for a task, see Clocking work time.

5.3.1 Closing items

The most basic logging is to keep track of when a certain TODO
item was finished. This is achieved with52

(setq org-log-done 'time)

Then each time you turn an entry from a TODO (not-done) state into any of the
DONE states, a line ‘CLOSED: [timestamp]’ will be inserted just after
the headline. If you turn the entry back into a TODO item through further
state cycling, that line will be removed again. If you turn the entry back
to a non-TODO state (by pressing C-c C-t SPC for example), that line
will also be removed, unless you set org-closed-keep-when-no-todo to
non-nil. If you want to record a note along with the timestamp,
use53

(setq org-log-done 'note)

You will then be prompted for a note, and that note will be stored below
the entry with a ‘Closing Note’ heading.

In the timeline (see Timeline) and in the agenda
(see Weekly/daily agenda), you can then use the l key to
display the TODO items with a ‘CLOSED’ timestamp on each day,
giving you an overview of what has been done.

5.3.2 Tracking TODO state changes

When TODO keywords are used as workflow states (see Workflow states), you
might want to keep track of when a state change occurred and maybe take a
note about this change. You can either record just a timestamp, or a
time-stamped note for a change. These records will be inserted after the
headline as an itemized list, newest first54. When taking a lot of notes, you might
want to get the notes out of the way into a drawer (see Drawers).
Customize org-log-into-drawer to get this behavior—the recommended
drawer for this is called LOGBOOK55. You can also
overrule the setting of this variable for a subtree by setting a
LOG_INTO_DRAWER property.

Since it is normally too much to record a note for every state, Org mode
expects configuration on a per-keyword basis for this. This is achieved by
adding special markers ‘!’ (for a timestamp) or ‘@’ (for a note
with timestamp) in parentheses after each keyword. For example, with the
setting

To record a timestamp without a note for TODO keywords configured with
‘@’, just type C-c C-c to enter a blank note when prompted.

You not only define global TODO keywords and fast access keys, but also
request that a time is recorded when the entry is set to
DONE56, and that a note is recorded when switching to
WAIT or CANCELED. The setting for WAIT is even more special: the
‘!’ after the slash means that in addition to the note taken when
entering the state, a timestamp should be recorded when leaving the
WAIT state, if and only if the target state does not configure
logging for entering it. So it has no effect when switching from WAIT
to DONE, because DONE is configured to record a timestamp only. But
when switching from WAIT back to TODO, the ‘/!’ in the WAIT
setting now triggers a timestamp even though TODO has no logging
configured.

You can use the exact same syntax for setting logging preferences local
to a buffer:

#+TODO: TODO(t) WAIT(w@/!) | DONE(d!) CANCELED(c@)

In order to define logging settings that are local to a subtree or a
single item, define a LOGGING property in this entry. Any non-empty
LOGGING property resets all logging settings to nil. You may then turn
on logging for this specific tree using STARTUP keywords like
lognotedone or logrepeat, as well as adding state specific
settings like TODO(!). For example

* TODO Log each state with only a time
:PROPERTIES:
:LOGGING: TODO(!) WAIT(!) DONE(!) CANCELED(!)
:END:
* TODO Only log when switching to WAIT, and when repeating
:PROPERTIES:
:LOGGING: WAIT(@) logrepeat
:END:
* TODO No logging at all
:PROPERTIES:
:LOGGING: nil
:END:

5.3.3 Tracking your habits

Org has the ability to track the consistency of a special category of TODOs,
called “habits”. A habit has the following properties:

You have enabled the habits module by customizing org-modules.

The habit is a TODO item, with a TODO keyword representing an open state.

The property STYLE is set to the value habit.

The TODO has a scheduled date, usually with a .+ style repeat
interval. A ++ style may be appropriate for habits with time
constraints, e.g., must be done on weekends, or a + style for an
unusual habit that can have a backlog, e.g., weekly reports.

The TODO may also have minimum and maximum ranges specified by using the
syntax ‘.+2d/3d’, which says that you want to do the task at least every
three days, but at most every two days.

You must also have state logging for the DONE state enabled
(see Tracking TODO state changes), in order for historical data to be
represented in the consistency graph. If it is not enabled it is not an
error, but the consistency graphs will be largely meaningless.

To give you an idea of what the above rules look like in action, here’s an
actual habit with some history:

What this habit says is: I want to shave at most every 2 days (given by the
SCHEDULED date and repeat interval) and at least every 4 days. If
today is the 15th, then the habit first appears in the agenda on Oct 17,
after the minimum of 2 days has elapsed, and will appear overdue on Oct 19,
after four days have elapsed.

What’s really useful about habits is that they are displayed along with a
consistency graph, to show how consistent you’ve been at getting that task
done in the past. This graph shows every day that the task was done over the
past three weeks, with colors for each day. The colors used are:

Blue

If the task wasn’t to be done yet on that day.

Green

If the task could have been done on that day.

Yellow

If the task was going to be overdue the next day.

Red

If the task was overdue on that day.

In addition to coloring each day, the day is also marked with an asterisk if
the task was actually done that day, and an exclamation mark to show where
the current day falls in the graph.

There are several configuration variables that can be used to change the way
habits are displayed in the agenda.

org-habit-graph-column

The buffer column at which the consistency graph should be drawn. This will
overwrite any text in that column, so it is a good idea to keep your habits’
titles brief and to the point.

org-habit-preceding-days

The amount of history, in days before today, to appear in consistency graphs.

org-habit-following-days

The number of days after today that will appear in consistency graphs.

org-habit-show-habits-only-for-today

If non-nil, only show habits in today’s agenda view. This is set to true by
default.

Lastly, pressing K in the agenda buffer will cause habits to
temporarily be disabled and they won’t appear at all. Press K again to
bring them back. They are also subject to tag filtering, if you have habits
which should only be done in certain contexts, for example.

5.4 Priorities

If you use Org mode extensively, you may end up with enough TODO items that
it starts to make sense to prioritize them. Prioritizing can be done by
placing a priority cookie into the headline of a TODO item, like this

*** TODO [#A] Write letter to Sam Fortune

By default, Org mode supports three priorities: ‘A’, ‘B’, and
‘C’. ‘A’ is the highest priority. An entry without a cookie is
treated just like priority ‘B’. Priorities make a difference only for
sorting in the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda); outside the agenda, they
have no inherent meaning to Org mode. The cookies can be highlighted with
special faces by customizing org-priority-faces.

Priorities can be attached to any outline node; they do not need to be TODO
items.

C-c ,

Set the priority of the current headline (org-priority). The
command prompts for a priority character ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’.
When you press SPC instead, the priority cookie is removed from the
headline. The priorities can also be changed “remotely” from the timeline
and agenda buffer with the , command (see Agenda commands).

S-up (org-priority-up)

S-down (org-priority-down)

Increase/decrease priority of current headline57. Note that these keys are
also used to modify timestamps (see Creating timestamps). See also
Conflicts, for a discussion of the interaction with
shift-selection-mode.

You can change the range of allowed priorities by setting the options
org-highest-priority, org-lowest-priority, and
org-default-priority. For an individual buffer, you may set
these values (highest, lowest, default) like this (please make sure that
the highest priority is earlier in the alphabet than the lowest
priority):

5.5 Breaking tasks down into subtasks

It is often advisable to break down large tasks into smaller, manageable
subtasks. You can do this by creating an outline tree below a TODO item,
with detailed subtasks on the tree58. To keep
the overview over the fraction of subtasks that are already completed, insert
either ‘[/]’ or ‘[%]’ anywhere in the headline. These cookies will
be updated each time the TODO status of a child changes, or when pressing
C-c C-c on the cookie. For example:

If a heading has both checkboxes and TODO children below it, the meaning of
the statistics cookie become ambiguous. Set the property
COOKIE_DATA to either ‘checkbox’ or ‘todo’ to resolve
this issue.

If you would like to have the statistics cookie count any TODO entries in the
subtree (not just direct children), configure
org-hierarchical-todo-statistics. To do this for a single subtree,
include the word ‘recursive’ into the value of the COOKIE_DATA
property.

5.6 Checkboxes

Every item in a plain list59 (see Plain lists) can be made into a checkbox by starting
it with the string ‘[ ]’. This feature is similar to TODO items
(see TODO Items), but is more lightweight. Checkboxes are not included
in the global TODO list, so they are often great to split a task into a
number of simple steps. Or you can use them in a shopping list. To toggle a
checkbox, use C-c C-c, or use the mouse (thanks to Piotr Zielinski’s
org-mouse.el).

Checkboxes work hierarchically, so if a checkbox item has children that
are checkboxes, toggling one of the children checkboxes will make the
parent checkbox reflect if none, some, or all of the children are
checked.

The ‘[2/4]’ and ‘[1/3]’ in the first and second line are cookies
indicating how many checkboxes present in this entry have been checked off,
and the total number of checkboxes present. This can give you an idea on how
many checkboxes remain, even without opening a folded entry. The cookies can
be placed into a headline or into (the first line of) a plain list item.
Each cookie covers checkboxes of direct children structurally below the
headline/item on which the cookie appears60. You have to insert the cookie yourself by typing either
‘[/]’ or ‘[%]’. With ‘[/]’ you get an ‘n out of m’
result, as in the examples above. With ‘[%]’ you get information about
the percentage of checkboxes checked (in the above example, this would be
‘[50%]’ and ‘[33%]’, respectively). In a headline, a cookie can
count either checkboxes below the heading or TODO states of children, and it
will display whatever was changed last. Set the property COOKIE_DATA
to either ‘checkbox’ or ‘todo’ to resolve this issue.

If the current outline node has an ORDERED property, checkboxes must
be checked off in sequence, and an error will be thrown if you try to check
off a box while there are unchecked boxes above it.

The following commands work with checkboxes:

C-c C-c (org-toggle-checkbox)

Toggle checkbox status or (with prefix arg) checkbox presence at point.
With a single prefix argument, add an empty checkbox or remove the current
one61. With a double prefix argument, set it to ‘[-]’, which is
considered to be an intermediate state.

C-c C-x C-b (org-toggle-checkbox)

Toggle checkbox status or (with prefix arg) checkbox presence at point. With
double prefix argument, set it to ‘[-]’, which is considered to be an
intermediate state.

- If there is an active region, toggle the first checkbox in the region
and set all remaining boxes to the same status as the first. With a prefix
arg, add or remove the checkbox for all items in the region.

- If the cursor is in a headline, toggle checkboxes in the region between
this headline and the next (so not the entire subtree).

- If there is no active region, just toggle the checkbox at point.

M-S-RET (org-insert-todo-heading)

Insert a new item with a checkbox. This works only if the cursor is already
in a plain list item (see Plain lists).

C-c C-x o (org-toggle-ordered-property)

Toggle the ORDERED property of the entry, to toggle if checkboxes must
be checked off in sequence. A property is used for this behavior because
this should be local to the current entry, not inherited like a tag.
However, if you would like to track the value of this property with a tag
for better visibility, customize org-track-ordered-property-with-tag.

C-c # (org-update-statistics-cookies)

Update the statistics cookie in the current outline entry. When called with
a C-u prefix, update the entire file. Checkbox statistic cookies are
updated automatically if you toggle checkboxes with C-c C-c and make
new ones with M-S-RET. TODO statistics cookies update when
changing TODO states. If you delete boxes/entries or add/change them by
hand, use this command to get things back into sync.

6 Tags

An excellent way to implement labels and contexts for cross-correlating
information is to assign tags to headlines. Org mode has extensive
support for tags.

Every headline can contain a list of tags; they occur at the end of the
headline. Tags are normal words containing letters, numbers, ‘_’, and
‘@’. Tags must be preceded and followed by a single colon, e.g.,
‘:work:’. Several tags can be specified, as in ‘:work:urgent:’.
Tags will by default be in bold face with the same color as the headline.
You may specify special faces for specific tags using the option
org-tag-faces, in much the same way as you can for TODO keywords
(see Faces for TODO keywords).

6.1 Tag inheritance

Tags make use of the hierarchical structure of outline trees. If a
heading has a certain tag, all subheadings will inherit the tag as
well. For example, in the list

* Meeting with the French group :work:
** Summary by Frank :boss:notes:
*** TODO Prepare slides for him :action:

the final heading will have the tags ‘:work:’, ‘:boss:’,
‘:notes:’, and ‘:action:’ even though the final heading is not
explicitly marked with those tags. You can also set tags that all entries in
a file should inherit just as if these tags were defined in a hypothetical
level zero that surrounds the entire file. Use a line like this62:

#+FILETAGS: :Peter:Boss:Secret:

To limit tag inheritance to specific tags, use org-tags-exclude-from-inheritance.
To turn it off entirely, use org-use-tag-inheritance.

When a headline matches during a tags search while tag inheritance is turned
on, all the sublevels in the same tree will (for a simple match form) match
as well63. The list
of matches may then become very long. If you only want to see the first tags
match in a subtree, configure org-tags-match-list-sublevels (not
recommended).

Tag inheritance is relevant when the agenda search tries to match a tag,
either in the tags or tags-todo agenda types. In other agenda
types, org-use-tag-inheritance has no effect. Still, you may want to
have your tags correctly set in the agenda, so that tag filtering works fine,
with inherited tags. Set org-agenda-use-tag-inheritance to control
this: the default value includes all agenda types, but setting this to nil
can really speed up agenda generation.

6.2 Setting tags

Tags can simply be typed into the buffer at the end of a headline.
After a colon, M-TAB offers completion on tags. There is
also a special command for inserting tags:

C-c C-q (org-set-tags-command)

Enter new tags for the current headline. Org mode will either offer
completion or a special single-key interface for setting tags, see
below. After pressing RET, the tags will be inserted and aligned
to org-tags-column. When called with a C-u prefix, all
tags in the current buffer will be aligned to that column, just to make
things look nice. TAGS are automatically realigned after promotion,
demotion, and TODO state changes (see TODO basics).

C-c C-c (org-set-tags-command)

When the cursor is in a headline, this does the same as C-c C-q.

Org supports tag insertion based on a list of tags. By
default this list is constructed dynamically, containing all tags
currently used in the buffer. You may also globally specify a hard list
of tags with the variable org-tag-alist. Finally you can set
the default tags for a given file with lines like

#+TAGS: @work @home @tennisclub
#+TAGS: laptop car pc sailboat

If you have globally defined your preferred set of tags using the
variable org-tag-alist, but would like to use a dynamic tag list
in a specific file, add an empty TAGS option line to that file:

#+TAGS:

If you have a preferred set of tags that you would like to use in every file,
in addition to those defined on a per-file basis by TAGS option lines, then
you may specify a list of tags with the variable
org-tag-persistent-alist. You may turn this off on a per-file basis
by adding a STARTUP option line to that file:

#+STARTUP: noptag

By default Org mode uses the standard minibuffer completion facilities for
entering tags. However, it also implements another, quicker, tag selection
method called fast tag selection. This allows you to select and
deselect tags with just a single key press. For this to work well you should
assign unique letters to most of your commonly used tags. You can do this
globally by configuring the variable org-tag-alist in your
.emacs file. For example, you may find the need to tag many items in
different files with ‘:@home:’. In this case you can set something
like:

(setq org-tag-alist '(("@work" . ?w) ("@home" . ?h) ("laptop" . ?l)))

If the tag is only relevant to the file you are working on, then you
can instead set the TAGS option line as:

#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) laptop(l) pc(p)

The tags interface will show the available tags in a splash
window. If you want to start a new line after a specific tag, insert
‘\n’ into the tag list

#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) \n laptop(l) pc(p)

or write them in two lines:

#+TAGS: @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t)
#+TAGS: laptop(l) pc(p)

You can also group together tags that are mutually exclusive by using
braces, as in:

#+TAGS: { @work(w) @home(h) @tennisclub(t) } laptop(l) pc(p)

you indicate that at most one of ‘@work’, ‘@home’,
and ‘@tennisclub’ should be selected. Multiple such groups are allowed.

Don’t forget to press C-c C-c with the cursor in one of
these lines to activate any changes.

To set these mutually exclusive groups in the variable org-tag-alist,
you must use the dummy tags :startgroup and :endgroup instead
of the braces. Similarly, you can use :newline to indicate a line
break. The previous example would be set globally by the following
configuration:

If at least one tag has a selection key then pressing C-c C-c will
automatically present you with a special interface, listing inherited tags,
the tags of the current headline, and a list of all valid tags with
corresponding keys64. In this interface, you can use the following
keys:

a-z...

Pressing keys assigned to tags will add or remove them from the list of
tags in the current line. Selecting a tag in a group of mutually
exclusive tags will turn off any other tags from that group.

TAB

Enter a tag in the minibuffer, even if the tag is not in the predefined
list. You will be able to complete on all tags present in the buffer.
You can also add several tags: just separate them with a comma.

SPC

Clear all tags for this line.

RET

Accept the modified set.

C-g

Abort without installing changes.

q

If q is not assigned to a tag, it aborts like C-g.

!

Turn off groups of mutually exclusive tags. Use this to (as an
exception) assign several tags from such a group.

C-c

Toggle auto-exit after the next change (see below).
If you are using expert mode, the first C-c will display the
selection window.

This method lets you assign tags to a headline with very few keys. With
the above setup, you could clear the current tags and set ‘@home’,
‘laptop’ and ‘pc’ tags with just the following keys: C-c
C-c SPC h l p RET. Switching from ‘@home’ to
‘@work’ would be done with C-c C-c w RET or
alternatively with C-c C-c C-c w. Adding the non-predefined tag
‘Sarah’ could be done with C-c C-c TAB S a r a h
RETRET.

If you find that most of the time you need only a single key press to
modify your list of tags, set org-fast-tag-selection-single-key.
Then you no longer have to press RET to exit fast tag selection—it
will immediately exit after the first change. If you then occasionally
need more keys, press C-c to turn off auto-exit for the current tag
selection process (in effect: start selection with C-c C-c C-c
instead of C-c C-c). If you set the variable to the value
expert, the special window is not even shown for single-key tag
selection, it comes up only when you press an extra C-c.

6.3 Tag groups

In a set of mutually exclusive tags, the first tag can be defined as a
group tag. When you search for a group tag, it will return matches
for all members in the group. In an agenda view, filtering by a group tag
will display headlines tagged with at least one of the members of the
group. This makes tag searches and filters even more flexible.

You can set group tags by inserting a colon between the group tag and other
tags—beware that all whitespaces are mandatory so that Org can parse this
line correctly:

#+TAGS: { @read : @read_book @read_ebook }

In this example, ‘@read’ is a group tag for a set of three
tags: ‘@read’, ‘@read_book’ and ‘@read_ebook’.

You can also use the :grouptags keyword directly when setting
org-tag-alist:

Create a global list of tag matches from all agenda files, but check
only TODO items and force checking subitems (see the option
org-tags-match-list-sublevels).

These commands all prompt for a match string which allows basic Boolean logic
like ‘+boss+urgent-project1’, to find entries with tags ‘boss’ and
‘urgent’, but not ‘project1’, or ‘Kathy|Sally’ to find entries
which are tagged, like ‘Kathy’ or ‘Sally’. The full syntax of the search
string is rich and allows also matching against TODO keywords, entry levels
and properties. For a complete description with many examples, see
Matching tags and properties.

7 Properties and columns

A property is a key-value pair associated with an entry. Properties can be
set so they are associated with a single entry, with every entry in a tree,
or with every entry in an Org mode file.

There are two main applications for properties in Org mode. First,
properties are like tags, but with a value. Imagine maintaining a file where
you document bugs and plan releases for a piece of software. Instead of
using tags like :release_1:, :release_2:, you can use a
property, say :Release:, that in different subtrees has different
values, such as 1.0 or 2.0. Second, you can use properties to
implement (very basic) database capabilities in an Org buffer. Imagine
keeping track of your music CDs, where properties could be things such as the
album, artist, date of release, number of tracks, and so on.

Properties can be conveniently edited and viewed in column view
(see Column view).

7.1 Property syntax

Properties are key-value pairs. When they are associated with a single entry
or with a tree they need to be inserted into a special
drawer (see Drawers) with the name PROPERTIES. Each property
is specified on a single line, with the key (surrounded by colons)
first, and the value after it. Here is an example:

Depending on the value of org-use-property-inheritance, a property set
this way will either be associated with a single entry, or the sub-tree
defined by the entry, see Property inheritance.

You may define the allowed values for a particular property ‘:Xyz:’
by setting a property ‘:Xyz_ALL:’. This special property is
inherited, so if you set it in a level 1 entry, it will apply to
the entire tree. When allowed values are defined, setting the
corresponding property becomes easier and is less prone to typing
errors. For the example with the CD collection, we can predefine
publishers and the number of disks in a box like this:

7.2 Special properties

Special properties provide an alternative access method to Org mode features,
like the TODO state or the priority of an entry, discussed in the previous
chapters. This interface exists so that you can include these states in a
column view (see Column view), or to use them in queries. The following
property names are special and (except for :CATEGORY:) should not be
used as keys in the properties drawer:

ID A globally unique ID used for synchronization duringiCalendar or MobileOrg export.
TODO The TODO keyword of the entry.
TAGS The tags defined directly in the headline.
ALLTAGS All tags, including inherited ones.
CATEGORY The category of an entry.
PRIORITY The priority of the entry, a string with a single letter.
DEADLINE The deadline time string, without the angular brackets.
SCHEDULED The scheduling timestamp, without the angular brackets.
CLOSED When was this entry closed?
TIMESTAMP The first keyword-less timestamp in the entry.
TIMESTAMP_IA The first inactive timestamp in the entry.
CLOCKSUM The sum of CLOCK intervals in the subtree. org-clock-summust be run first to compute the values in the current buffer.
CLOCKSUM_T The sum of CLOCK intervals in the subtree for today.org-clock-sum-today must be run first to compute thevalues in the current buffer.
BLOCKED "t" if task is currently blocked by children or siblings
ITEM The headline of the entry.
FILE The filename the entry is located in.

There is also a special command for creating sparse trees based on a
single property:

C-c / p

Create a sparse tree based on the value of a property. This first
prompts for the name of a property, and then for a value. A sparse tree
is created with all entries that define this property with the given
value. If you enclose the value in curly braces, it is interpreted as
a regular expression and matched against the property values.

7.4 Property Inheritance

The outline structure of Org mode documents lends itself to an
inheritance model of properties: if the parent in a tree has a certain
property, the children can inherit this property. Org mode does not
turn this on by default, because it can slow down property searches
significantly and is often not needed. However, if you find inheritance
useful, you can turn it on by setting the variable
org-use-property-inheritance. It may be set to t to make
all properties inherited from the parent, to a list of properties
that should be inherited, or to a regular expression that matches
inherited properties. If a property has the value nil, this is
interpreted as an explicit undefine of the property, so that inheritance
search will stop at this value and return nil.

Org mode has a few properties for which inheritance is hard-coded, at
least for the special applications for which they are used:

COLUMNS

The :COLUMNS: property defines the format of column view
(see Column view). It is inherited in the sense that the level
where a :COLUMNS: property is defined is used as the starting
point for a column view table, independently of the location in the
subtree from where columns view is turned on.

CATEGORY

For agenda view, a category set through a :CATEGORY: property
applies to the entire subtree.

ARCHIVE

For archiving, the :ARCHIVE: property may define the archive
location for the entire subtree (see Moving subtrees).

7.5 Column view

A great way to view and edit properties in an outline tree is
column view. In column view, each outline node is turned into a
table row. Columns in this table provide access to properties of the
entries. Org mode implements columns by overlaying a tabular structure
over the headline of each item. While the headlines have been turned
into a table row, you can still change the visibility of the outline
tree. For example, you get a compact table by switching to CONTENTS
view (S-TAB S-TAB, or simply c while column view
is active), but you can still open, read, and edit the entry below each
headline. Or, you can switch to column view after executing a sparse
tree command and in this way get a table only for the selected items.
Column view also works in agenda buffers (see Agenda Views) where
queries have collected selected items, possibly from a number of files.

If a :COLUMNS: property is present in an entry, it defines columns
for the entry itself, and for the entire subtree below it. Since the
column definition is part of the hierarchical structure of the document,
you can define columns on level 1 that are general enough for all
sublevels, and more specific columns further down, when you edit a
deeper part of the tree.

7.5.1.2 Column attributes

A column definition sets the attributes of a column. The general
definition looks like this:

%[width]property[(title)][{summary-type}]

Except for the percent sign and the property name, all items are
optional. The individual parts have the following meaning:

widthAn integer specifying the width of the column in characters.If omitted, the width will be determined automatically.propertyThe property that should be edited in this column.Special properties representing meta data are allowed hereas well (see Special properties)titleThe header text for the column. If omitted, the propertyname is used.
{summary-type} The summary type. If specified, the column values forparent nodes are computed from the children.Supported summary types are:
{+} Sum numbers in this column.
{+;%.1f} Like ‘+’, but format result with ‘%.1f’.
{$} Currency, short for ‘+;%.2f’.
{:} Sum times, HH:MM, plain numbers are hours.
{X} Checkbox status, ‘[X]’ if all children are ‘[X]’.
{X/} Checkbox status, ‘[n/m]’.
{X%} Checkbox status, ‘[n%]’.
{min} Smallest number in column.
{max} Largest number.
{mean} Arithmetic mean of numbers.
{:min} Smallest time value in column.
{:max} Largest time value.
{:mean} Arithmetic mean of time values.
{@min} Minimum age (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
{@max} Maximum age (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
{@mean} Arithmetic mean of ages (in days/hours/mins/seconds).
{est+} Add low-high estimates.

Be aware that you can only have one summary type for any property you
include. Subsequent columns referencing the same property will all display the
same summary information.

The est+ summary type requires further explanation. It is used for
combining estimates, expressed as low-high ranges. For example, instead
of estimating a particular task will take 5 days, you might estimate it as
5–6 days if you’re fairly confident you know how much work is required, or
1–10 days if you don’t really know what needs to be done. Both ranges
average at 5.5 days, but the first represents a more predictable delivery.

When combining a set of such estimates, simply adding the lows and highs
produces an unrealistically wide result. Instead, est+ adds the
statistical mean and variance of the sub-tasks, generating a final estimate
from the sum. For example, suppose you had ten tasks, each of which was
estimated at 0.5 to 2 days of work. Straight addition produces an estimate
of 5 to 20 days, representing what to expect if everything goes either
extremely well or extremely poorly. In contrast, est+ estimates the
full job more realistically, at 10–15 days.

Numbers are right-aligned when a format specifier with an explicit width like
%5d or %5.1f is used.

Here is an example for a complete columns definition, along with allowed
values.

The first column, ‘%25ITEM’, means the first 25 characters of the
item itself, i.e., of the headline. You probably always should start the
column definition with the ‘ITEM’ specifier. The other specifiers
create columns ‘Owner’ with a list of names as allowed values, for
‘Status’ with four different possible values, and for a checkbox
field ‘Approved’. When no width is given after the ‘%’
character, the column will be exactly as wide as it needs to be in order
to fully display all values. The ‘Approved’ column does have a
modified title (‘Approved?’, with a question mark). Summaries will
be created for the ‘Time_Estimate’ column by adding time duration
expressions like HH:MM, and for the ‘Approved’ column, by providing
an ‘[X]’ status if all children have been checked. The
‘CLOCKSUM’ and ‘CLOCKSUM_T’ columns are special, they lists the
sums of CLOCK intervals in the subtree, either for all clocks or just for
today.

7.5.2 Using column view

Turning column view on and off

C-c C-x C-c (org-columns)

Turn on column view. If the cursor is before the first headline in the file,
column view is turned on for the entire file, using the #+COLUMNS
definition. If the cursor is somewhere inside the outline, this command
searches the hierarchy, up from point, for a :COLUMNS: property that
defines a format. When one is found, the column view table is established
for the tree starting at the entry that contains the :COLUMNS:
property. If no such property is found, the format is taken from the
#+COLUMNS line or from the variable org-columns-default-format,
and column view is established for the current entry and its subtree.

r (org-columns-redo)

Recreate the column view, to include recent changes made in the buffer.

g (org-columns-redo)

Same as r.

q (org-columns-quit)

Exit column view.

Editing values

leftrightupdown

Move through the column view from field to field.

S-left/right

Switch to the next/previous allowed value of the field. For this, you
have to have specified allowed values for a property.

1..9,0

Directly select the Nth allowed value, 0 selects the 10th value.

n (org-columns-next-allowed-value)

p (org-columns-previous-allowed-value)

Same as S-left/right

e (org-columns-edit-value)

Edit the property at point. For the special properties, this will
invoke the same interface that you normally use to change that
property. For example, when editing a TAGS property, the tag completion
or fast selection interface will pop up.

C-c C-c (org-columns-set-tags-or-toggle)

When there is a checkbox at point, toggle it.

v (org-columns-show-value)

View the full value of this property. This is useful if the width of
the column is smaller than that of the value.

a (org-columns-edit-allowed)

Edit the list of allowed values for this property. If the list is found
in the hierarchy, the modified values is stored there. If no list is
found, the new value is stored in the first entry that is part of the
current column view.

7.5.3 Capturing column view

Since column view is just an overlay over a buffer, it cannot be
exported or printed directly. If you want to capture a column view, use
a columnview dynamic block (see Dynamic blocks). The frame
of this block looks like this:

* The column view
#+BEGIN: columnview :hlines 1 :id "label"
#+END:

This dynamic block has the following parameters:

:id

This is the most important parameter. Column view is a feature that is
often localized to a certain (sub)tree, and the capture block might be
at a different location in the file. To identify the tree whose view to
capture, you can use 4 values:

local use the tree in which the capture block is located
global make a global view, including all headings in the file
"file:path-to-file"
run column view at the top of this file
"ID" call column view in the tree that has an :ID:property with the value label. You can useM-x org-id-copy RET to create a globally unique ID forthe current entry and copy it to the kill-ring.

:hlines

When t, insert an hline after every line. When a number N, insert
an hline before each headline with level <= N.

:vlines

When set to t, force column groups to get vertical lines.

:maxlevel

When set to a number, don’t capture entries below this level.

:skip-empty-rows

When set to t, skip rows where the only non-empty specifier of the
column view is ITEM.

The following commands insert or update the dynamic block:

C-c C-x i (org-insert-columns-dblock)

Insert a dynamic block capturing a column view. You will be prompted
for the scope or ID of the view.

C-c C-corC-c C-x C-u (org-dblock-update)

Update dynamic block at point. The cursor needs to be in the
#+BEGIN line of the dynamic block.

C-u C-c C-x C-u (org-update-all-dblocks)

Update all dynamic blocks (see Dynamic blocks). This is useful if
you have several clock table blocks, column-capturing blocks or other dynamic
blocks in a buffer.

You can add formulas to the column view table and you may add plotting
instructions in front of the table—these will survive an update of the
block. If there is a #+TBLFM: after the table, the table will
actually be recalculated automatically after an update.

An alternative way to capture and process property values into a table is
provided by Eric Schulte’s org-collector.el which is a contributed
package66. It provides a general API to collect
properties from entries in a certain scope, and arbitrary Lisp expressions to
process these values before inserting them into a table or a dynamic block.

7.6 The Property API

There is a full API for accessing and changing properties. This API can
be used by Emacs Lisp programs to work with properties and to implement
features based on them. For more information see Using the property API.

8 Dates and times

To assist project planning, TODO items can be labeled with a date and/or
a time. The specially formatted string carrying the date and time
information is called a timestamp in Org mode. This may be a
little confusing because timestamp is often used as indicating when
something was created or last changed. However, in Org mode this term
is used in a much wider sense.

8.1 Timestamps, deadlines, and scheduling

A timestamp is a specification of a date (possibly with a time or a range of
times) in a special format, either ‘<2003-09-16 Tue>’67 or ‘<2003-09-16 Tue 09:39>’ or ‘<2003-09-16
Tue 12:00-12:30>’68. A timestamp can appear anywhere in the headline or body of an Org
tree entry. Its presence causes entries to be shown on specific dates in the
agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda). We distinguish:

Plain timestamp; Event; Appointment

A simple timestamp just assigns a date/time to an item. This is just
like writing down an appointment or event in a paper agenda. In the
timeline and agenda displays, the headline of an entry associated with a
plain timestamp will be shown exactly on that date.

A timestamp may contain a repeater interval, indicating that it
applies not only on the given date, but again and again after a certain
interval of N days (d), weeks (w), months (m), or years (y). The
following will show up in the agenda every Wednesday:

* Pick up Sam at school
<2007-05-16 Wed 12:30 +1w>

Diary-style sexp entries

For more complex date specifications, Org mode supports using the special
sexp diary entries implemented in the Emacs calendar/diary
package69. For
example with optional time

* 22:00-23:00 The nerd meeting on every 2nd Thursday of the month
<%%(diary-float t 4 2)>

Time/Date range

Two timestamps connected by ‘--’ denote a range. The headline
will be shown on the first and last day of the range, and on any dates
that are displayed and fall in the range. Here is an example:

** Meeting in Amsterdam
<2004-08-23 Mon>--<2004-08-26 Thu>

Inactive timestamp

Just like a plain timestamp, but with square brackets instead of
angular ones. These timestamps are inactive in the sense that they do
not trigger an entry to show up in the agenda.

8.2 Creating timestamps

For Org mode to recognize timestamps, they need to be in the specific
format. All commands listed below produce timestamps in the correct
format.

C-c . (org-time-stamp)

Prompt for a date and insert a corresponding timestamp. When the cursor is
at an existing timestamp in the buffer, the command is used to modify this
timestamp instead of inserting a new one. When this command is used twice in
succession, a time range is inserted.

C-c ! (org-time-stamp-inactive)

Like C-c ., but insert an inactive timestamp that will not cause
an agenda entry.

C-u C-c .

C-u C-c !

Like C-c . and C-c !, but use the alternative format which
contains date and time. The default time can be rounded to multiples of 5
minutes, see the option org-time-stamp-rounding-minutes.

C-c C-c

Normalize timestamp, insert/fix day name if missing or wrong.

C-c < (org-date-from-calendar)

Insert a timestamp corresponding to the cursor date in the Calendar.

C-c > (org-goto-calendar)

Access the Emacs calendar for the current date. If there is a
timestamp in the current line, go to the corresponding date
instead.

C-c C-o (org-open-at-point)

Access the agenda for the date given by the timestamp or -range at
point (see Weekly/daily agenda).

S-left (org-timestamp-down-day)

S-right (org-timestamp-up-day)

Change date at cursor by one day. These key bindings conflict with
shift-selection and related modes (see Conflicts).

S-up (org-timestamp-up)

S-down (org-timestamp-down-down)

Change the item under the cursor in a timestamp. The cursor can be on a
year, month, day, hour or minute. When the timestamp contains a time range
like ‘15:30-16:30’, modifying the first time will also shift the second,
shifting the time block with constant length. To change the length, modify
the second time. Note that if the cursor is in a headline and not at a
timestamp, these same keys modify the priority of an item.
(see Priorities). The key bindings also conflict with shift-selection and
related modes (see Conflicts).

C-c C-y (org-evaluate-time-range)

Evaluate a time range by computing the difference between start and end.
With a prefix argument, insert result after the time range (in a table: into
the following column).

8.2.1 The date/time prompt

When Org mode prompts for a date/time, the default is shown in default
date/time format, and the prompt therefore seems to ask for a specific
format. But it will in fact accept date/time information in a variety of
formats. Generally, the information should start at the beginning of the
string. Org mode will find whatever information is in
there and derive anything you have not specified from the default date
and time. The default is usually the current date and time, but when
modifying an existing timestamp, or when entering the second stamp of a
range, it is taken from the stamp in the buffer. When filling in
information, Org mode assumes that most of the time you will want to enter a
date in the future: if you omit the month/year and the given day/month is
before today, it will assume that you mean a future date70. If the date has been automatically shifted into the future, the
time prompt will show this with ‘(=>F).’

For example, let’s assume that today is June 13, 2006. Here is how
various inputs will be interpreted, the items filled in by Org mode are
in bold.

Furthermore you can specify a relative date by giving, as the first
thing in the input: a plus/minus sign, a number and a letter ([hdwmy]) to
indicate change in hours, days, weeks, months, or years. With a single plus
or minus, the date is always relative to today. With a double plus or minus,
it is relative to the default date. If instead of a single letter, you use
the abbreviation of day name, the date will be the Nth such day, e.g.:

+0 ⇒ today
. ⇒ today
+4d ⇒ four days from today
+4 ⇒ same as above
+2w ⇒ two weeks from today
++5 ⇒ five days from default date
+2tue ⇒ second Tuesday from now
-wed ⇒ last Wednesday

The function understands English month and weekday abbreviations. If
you want to use unabbreviated names and/or other languages, configure
the variables parse-time-months and parse-time-weekdays.

Not all dates can be represented in a given Emacs implementation. By default
Org mode forces dates into the compatibility range 1970–2037 which works on
all Emacs implementations. If you want to use dates outside of this range,
read the docstring of the variable
org-read-date-force-compatible-dates.

You can specify a time range by giving start and end times or by giving a
start time and a duration (in HH:MM format). Use one or two dash(es) as the
separator in the former case and use ’+’ as the separator in the latter
case, e.g.:

11am-1:15pm ⇒ 11:00-13:15
11am--1:15pm ⇒ same as above
11am+2:15 ⇒ same as above

Parallel to the minibuffer prompt, a calendar is popped up71. When you exit the date
prompt, either by clicking on a date in the calendar, or by pressing
RET, the date selected in the calendar will be combined with the
information entered at the prompt. You can control the calendar fully
from the minibuffer:

The actions of the date/time prompt may seem complex, but I assure you they
will grow on you, and you will start getting annoyed by pretty much any other
way of entering a date/time out there. To help you understand what is going
on, the current interpretation of your input will be displayed live in the
minibuffer72.

8.2.2 Custom time format

Org mode uses the standard ISO notation for dates and times as it is
defined in ISO 8601. If you cannot get used to this and require another
representation of date and time to keep you happy, you can get it by
customizing the options org-display-custom-times and
org-time-stamp-custom-formats.

C-c C-x C-t (org-toggle-time-stamp-overlays)

Toggle the display of custom formats for dates and times.

Org mode needs the default format for scanning, so the custom date/time
format does not replace the default format—instead it is put
over the default format using text properties. This has the
following consequences:

You cannot place the cursor onto a timestamp anymore, only before or
after.

The S-up/down keys can no longer be used to adjust
each component of a timestamp. If the cursor is at the beginning of
the stamp, S-up/down will change the stamp by one day,
just like S-left/right. At the end of the stamp, the
time will be changed by one minute.

If the timestamp contains a range of clock times or a repeater, these
will not be overlaid, but remain in the buffer as they were.

When you delete a timestamp character-by-character, it will only
disappear from the buffer after all (invisible) characters
belonging to the ISO timestamp have been removed.

If the custom timestamp format is longer than the default and you are
using dates in tables, table alignment will be messed up. If the custom
format is shorter, things do work as expected.

8.3 Deadlines and scheduling

A timestamp may be preceded by special keywords to facilitate planning:

DEADLINE

Meaning: the task (most likely a TODO item, though not necessarily) is supposed
to be finished on that date.

On the deadline date, the task will be listed in the agenda. In
addition, the agenda for today will carry a warning about the
approaching or missed deadline, starting
org-deadline-warning-days before the due date, and continuing
until the entry is marked DONE. An example:

*** TODO write article about the Earth for the Guide
DEADLINE: <2004-02-29 Sun>
The editor in charge is [[bbdb:Ford Prefect]]

You can specify a different lead time for warnings for a specific
deadlines using the following syntax. Here is an example with a warning
period of 5 days DEADLINE: <2004-02-29 Sun -5d>. This warning is
deactivated if the task get scheduled and you set
org-agenda-skip-deadline-prewarning-if-scheduled to t.

SCHEDULED

Meaning: you are planning to start working on that task on the given
date.

The headline will be listed under the given date73. In
addition, a reminder that the scheduled date has passed will be present
in the compilation for today, until the entry is marked DONE, i.e.,
the task will automatically be forwarded until completed.

*** TODO Call Trillian for a date on New Years Eve.
SCHEDULED: <2004-12-25 Sat>

If you want to delay the display of this task in the agenda, use
SCHEDULED: <2004-12-25 Sat -2d>: the task is still scheduled on the
25th but will appear two days later. In case the task contains a repeater,
the delay is considered to affect all occurrences; if you want the delay to
only affect the first scheduled occurrence of the task, use --2d
instead. See org-scheduled-delay-days and
org-agenda-skip-scheduled-delay-if-deadline for details on how to
control this globally or per agenda.

Important: Scheduling an item in Org mode should not be
understood in the same way that we understand scheduling a meeting.
Setting a date for a meeting is just a simple appointment, you should
mark this entry with a simple plain timestamp, to get this item shown
on the date where it applies. This is a frequent misunderstanding by
Org users. In Org mode, scheduling means setting a date when you
want to start working on an action item.

You may use timestamps with repeaters in scheduling and deadline
entries. Org mode will issue early and late warnings based on the
assumption that the timestamp represents the nearest instance of
the repeater. However, the use of diary sexp entries like
<%%(diary-float t 42)>
in scheduling and deadline timestamps is limited. Org mode does not
know enough about the internals of each sexp function to issue early and
late warnings. However, it will show the item on each day where the
sexp entry matches.

8.3.1 Inserting deadlines or schedules

The following commands allow you to quickly insert74 a deadline or to schedule
an item:

C-c C-d (org-deadline)

Insert ‘DEADLINE’ keyword along with a stamp. The insertion will happen
in the line directly following the headline. Any CLOSED timestamp will be
removed. When called with a prefix arg, an existing deadline will be removed
from the entry. Depending on the variable org-log-redeadline75, a note will be taken when changing an existing
deadline.

C-c C-s (org-schedule)

Insert ‘SCHEDULED’ keyword along with a stamp. The insertion will
happen in the line directly following the headline. Any CLOSED timestamp
will be removed. When called with a prefix argument, remove the scheduling
date from the entry. Depending on the variable
org-log-reschedule76, a note will be taken when changing an existing
scheduling time.

C-c C-x C-k (org-mark-entry-for-agenda-action)

Mark the current entry for agenda action. After you have marked the entry
like this, you can open the agenda or the calendar to find an appropriate
date. With the cursor on the selected date, press k s or k d to
schedule the marked item.

C-c / d (org-check-deadlines)

Create a sparse tree with all deadlines that are either past-due, or
which will become due within org-deadline-warning-days.
With C-u prefix, show all deadlines in the file. With a numeric
prefix, check that many days. For example, C-1 C-c / d shows
all deadlines due tomorrow.

C-c / b (org-check-before-date)

Sparse tree for deadlines and scheduled items before a given date.

C-c / a (org-check-after-date)

Sparse tree for deadlines and scheduled items after a given date.

Note that org-schedule and org-deadline supports
setting the date by indicating a relative time: e.g., +1d will set
the date to the next day after today, and –1w will set the date
to the previous week before any current timestamp.

8.3.2 Repeated tasks

Some tasks need to be repeated again and again. Org mode helps to
organize such tasks using a so-called repeater in a DEADLINE, SCHEDULED,
or plain timestamp. In the following example

** TODO Pay the rent
DEADLINE: <2005-10-01 Sat +1m>

the +1m is a repeater; the intended interpretation is that the task
has a deadline on <2005-10-01> and repeats itself every (one) month starting
from that time. You can use yearly, monthly, weekly, daily and hourly repeat
cookies by using the y/w/m/d/h letters. If you need both a repeater
and a special warning period in a deadline entry, the repeater should come
first and the warning period last: DEADLINE: <2005-10-01 Sat +1m -3d>.

Deadlines and scheduled items produce entries in the agenda when they are
over-due, so it is important to be able to mark such an entry as completed
once you have done so. When you mark a DEADLINE or a SCHEDULE with the TODO
keyword DONE, it will no longer produce entries in the agenda. The problem
with this is, however, that then also the next instance of the
repeated entry will not be active. Org mode deals with this in the following
way: When you try to mark such an entry DONE (using C-c C-t), it will
shift the base date of the repeating timestamp by the repeater interval, and
immediately set the entry state back to TODO77. In the example above, setting the state to DONE would actually
switch the date like this:

** TODO Pay the rent
DEADLINE: <2005-11-01 Tue +1m>

A timestamp78 will be added under the deadline, to keep
a record that you actually acted on the previous instance of this deadline.

As a consequence of shifting the base date, this entry will no longer be
visible in the agenda when checking past dates, but all future instances
will be visible.

With the ‘+1m’ cookie, the date shift will always be exactly one
month. So if you have not paid the rent for three months, marking this
entry DONE will still keep it as an overdue deadline. Depending on the
task, this may not be the best way to handle it. For example, if you
forgot to call your father for 3 weeks, it does not make sense to call
him 3 times in a single day to make up for it. Finally, there are tasks
like changing batteries which should always repeat a certain time
after the last time you did it. For these tasks, Org mode has
special repeaters ‘++’ and ‘.+’. For example:

** TODO Call Father
DEADLINE: <2008-02-10 Sun ++1w>
Marking this DONE will shift the date by at least one week,
but also by as many weeks as it takes to get this date into
the future. However, it stays on a Sunday, even if you called
and marked it done on Saturday.
** TODO Check the batteries in the smoke detectors
DEADLINE: <2005-11-01 Tue .+1m>
Marking this DONE will shift the date to one month after
today.

You may have both scheduling and deadline information for a specific task.
If the repeater is set for the scheduling information only, you probably want
the repeater to be ignored after the deadline. If so, set the variable
org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-deadline-is-shown to
repeated-after-deadline. If you want both scheduling and deadline
information to repeat after the same interval, set the same repeater for both
timestamps.

An alternative to using a repeater is to create a number of copies of a task
subtree, with dates shifted in each copy. The command C-c C-x c was
created for this purpose, it is described in Structure editing.

8.4 Clocking work time

Org mode allows you to clock the time you spend on specific tasks in a
project. When you start working on an item, you can start the clock. When
you stop working on that task, or when you mark the task done, the clock is
stopped and the corresponding time interval is recorded. It also computes
the total time spent on each subtree79 of a project. And it remembers a
history or tasks recently clocked, to that you can jump quickly between a
number of tasks absorbing your time.

To save the clock history across Emacs sessions, use

(setq org-clock-persist 'history)
(org-clock-persistence-insinuate)

When you clock into a new task after resuming Emacs, the incomplete
clock80
will be found (see Resolving idle time) and you will be prompted about
what to do with it.

8.4.1 Clocking commands

C-c C-x C-i (org-clock-in)

Start the clock on the current item (clock-in). This inserts the CLOCK
keyword together with a timestamp. If this is not the first clocking of
this item, the multiple CLOCK lines will be wrapped into a
:LOGBOOK: drawer (see also the variable
org-clock-into-drawer). You can also overrule
the setting of this variable for a subtree by setting a
CLOCK_INTO_DRAWER or LOG_INTO_DRAWER property.
When called with a C-u prefix argument,
select the task from a list of recently clocked tasks. With two C-u
C-u prefixes, clock into the task at point and mark it as the default task;
the default task will then always be available with letter d when
selecting a clocking task. With three C-u C-u C-u prefixes, force
continuous clocking by starting the clock when the last clock stopped.
While the clock is running, the current clocking time is shown in the mode
line, along with the title of the task. The clock time shown will be all
time ever clocked for this task and its children. If the task has an effort
estimate (see Effort estimates), the mode line displays the current
clocking time against it81 If the task
is a repeating one (see Repeated tasks), only the time since the last
reset of the task 82
will be shown. More control over what time is shown can be exercised with
the CLOCK_MODELINE_TOTAL property. It may have the values
current to show only the current clocking instance, today to
show all time clocked on this tasks today (see also the variable
org-extend-today-until), all to include all time, or
auto which is the default83. Clicking with mouse-1 onto the
mode line entry will pop up a menu with clocking options.

C-c C-x C-o (org-clock-out)

Stop the clock (clock-out). This inserts another timestamp at the same
location where the clock was last started. It also directly computes
the resulting time in inserts it after the time range as ‘=>
HH:MM’. See the variable org-log-note-clock-out for the
possibility to record an additional note together with the clock-out
timestamp84.

C-c C-x C-x (org-clock-in-last)

Reclock the last clocked task. With one C-u prefix argument,
select the task from the clock history. With two C-u prefixes,
force continuous clocking by starting the clock when the last clock
stopped.

C-c C-x C-e (org-clock-modify-effort-estimate)

Update the effort estimate for the current clock task.

C-c C-corC-c C-y (org-evaluate-time-range)

Recompute the time interval after changing one of the timestamps. This
is only necessary if you edit the timestamps directly. If you change
them with S-cursor keys, the update is automatic.

C-S-up/down (org-clock-timestamps-up/down)

On CLOCK log lines, increase/decrease both timestamps so that the
clock duration keeps the same.

S-M-up/down (org-timestamp-up/down)

On CLOCK log lines, increase/decrease the timestamp at point and
the one of the previous (or the next clock) timestamp by the same duration.
For example, if you hit S-M-up to increase a clocked-out timestamp
by five minutes, then the clocked-in timestamp of the next clock will be
increased by five minutes.

C-c C-t (org-todo)

Changing the TODO state of an item to DONE automatically stops the clock
if it is running in this same item.

C-c C-x C-q (org-clock-cancel)

Cancel the current clock. This is useful if a clock was started by
mistake, or if you ended up working on something else.

C-c C-x C-j (org-clock-goto)

Jump to the headline of the currently clocked in task. With a C-u
prefix arg, select the target task from a list of recently clocked tasks.

C-c C-x C-d (org-clock-display)

Display time summaries for each subtree in the current buffer. This puts
overlays at the end of each headline, showing the total time recorded under
that heading, including the time of any subheadings. You can use visibility
cycling to study the tree, but the overlays disappear when you change the
buffer (see variable org-remove-highlights-with-change) or press
C-c C-c.

The l key may be used in the timeline (see Timeline) and in
the agenda (see Weekly/daily agenda) to show which tasks have been
worked on or closed during a day.

Important: note that both org-clock-out and
org-clock-in-last can have a global keybinding and will not
modify the window disposition.

8.4.2 The clock table

Org mode can produce quite complex reports based on the time clocking
information. Such a report is called a clock table, because it is
formatted as one or several Org tables.

C-c C-x C-r (org-clock-report)

Insert a dynamic block (see Dynamic blocks) containing a clock
report as an Org mode table into the current file. When the cursor is
at an existing clock table, just update it. When called with a prefix
argument, jump to the first clock report in the current document and
update it. The clock table always includes also trees with
:ARCHIVE: tag.

C-c C-corC-c C-x C-u (org-dblock-update)

Update dynamic block at point. The cursor needs to be in the
#+BEGIN line of the dynamic block.

C-u C-c C-x C-u

Update all dynamic blocks (see Dynamic blocks). This is useful if
you have several clock table blocks in a buffer.

S-left

S-right (org-clocktable-try-shift)

Shift the current :block interval and update the table. The cursor
needs to be in the #+BEGIN: clocktable line for this command. If
:block is today, it will be shifted to today-1 etc.

Here is an example of the frame for a clock table as it is inserted into the
buffer with the C-c C-x C-r command:

The ‘BEGIN’ line and specify a number of options to define the scope,
structure, and formatting of the report. Defaults for all these options can
be configured in the variable org-clocktable-defaults.

First there are options that determine which clock entries are to
be selected:

:maxlevel Maximum level depth to which times are listed in the table.Clocks at deeper levels will be summed into the upper level.
:scope The scope to consider. This can be any of the following:
nil the current buffer or narrowed region
file the full current buffer
subtree the subtree where the clocktable is located
treeNthe surrounding level N tree, for example tree3
tree the surrounding level 1 tree
agenda all agenda files
("file"..) scan these files
file-with-archives current file and its archives
agenda-with-archives all agenda files, including archives
:block The time block to consider. This block is specified eitherabsolute, or relative to the current time and may be any ofthese formats:
2007-12-31 New year eve 2007
2007-12 December 2007
2007-W50 ISO-week 50 in 2007
2007-Q2 2nd quarter in 2007
2007 the year 2007
today, yesterday, today-Na relative day
thisweek, lastweek, thisweek-Na relative week
thismonth, lastmonth, thismonth-Na relative month
thisyear, lastyear, thisyear-Na relative yearUse S-left/right keys to shift the time interval.
:tstart A time string specifying when to start considering times.Relative times like "<-2w>" can also be used. SeeMatching tags and properties for relative time syntax.
:tend A time string specifying when to stop considering times.Relative times like "<now>" can also be used. SeeMatching tags and properties for relative time syntax.
:wstart The starting day of the week. The default is 1 for monday.
:mstart The starting day of the month. The default 1 is for the firstday of the month.
:step week or day, to split the table into chunks.To use this, :block or :tstart, :tend are needed.
:stepskip0 Do not show steps that have zero time.
:fileskip0 Do not show table sections from files which did not contribute.
:tags A tags match to select entries that should contribute. SeeMatching tags and properties for the match syntax.

Then there are options which determine the formatting of the table. There
options are interpreted by the function org-clocktable-write-default,
but you can specify your own function using the :formatter parameter.

:emphasize When t, emphasize level one and level two items.
:lang Language(85) to use for descriptive cells like "Task".
:link Link the item headlines in the table to their origins.
:narrow An integer to limit the width of the headline column inthe org table. If you write it like ‘50!’, then theheadline will also be shortened in export.
:indent Indent each headline field according to its level.
:tcolumns Number of columns to be used for times. If this is smallerthan :maxlevel, lower levels will be lumped into one column.
:level Should a level number column be included?
:compact Abbreviation for :level nil :indent t :narrow 40! :tcolumns 1All are overwritten except if there is an explicit :narrow
:timestamp A timestamp for the entry, when available. Look for SCHEDULED,DEADLINE, TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMP_IA, in this order.
:properties List of properties that should be shown in the table. Eachproperty will get its own column.
:inherit-props When this flag is t, the values for :properties will be inherited.
:formula Content of a #+TBLFM line to be added and evaluated.As a special case, ‘:formula %’ adds a column with % time.If you do not specify a formula here, any existing formulabelow the clock table will survive updates and be evaluated.
:formatter A function to format clock data and insert it into the buffer.

To get a clock summary of the current level 1 tree, for the current
day, you could write

8.4.3 Resolving idle time and continuous clocking

Resolving idle time

If you clock in on a work item, and then walk away from your
computer—perhaps to take a phone call—you often need to “resolve” the
time you were away by either subtracting it from the current clock, or
applying it to another one.

By customizing the variable org-clock-idle-time to some integer, such
as 10 or 15, Emacs can alert you when you get back to your computer after
being idle for that many minutes87, and ask what you want to do with the idle time.
There will be a question waiting for you when you get back, indicating how
much idle time has passed (constantly updated with the current amount), as
well as a set of choices to correct the discrepancy:

k

To keep some or all of the minutes and stay clocked in, press k. Org
will ask how many of the minutes to keep. Press RET to keep them all,
effectively changing nothing, or enter a number to keep that many minutes.

K

If you use the shift key and press K, it will keep however many minutes
you request and then immediately clock out of that task. If you keep all of
the minutes, this is the same as just clocking out of the current task.

s

To keep none of the minutes, use s to subtract all the away time from
the clock, and then check back in from the moment you returned.

S

To keep none of the minutes and just clock out at the start of the away time,
use the shift key and press S. Remember that using shift will always
leave you clocked out, no matter which option you choose.

C

To cancel the clock altogether, use C. Note that if instead of
canceling you subtract the away time, and the resulting clock amount is less
than a minute, the clock will still be canceled rather than clutter up the
log with an empty entry.

What if you subtracted those away minutes from the current clock, and now
want to apply them to a new clock? Simply clock in to any task immediately
after the subtraction. Org will notice that you have subtracted time “on
the books”, so to speak, and will ask if you want to apply those minutes to
the next task you clock in on.

There is one other instance when this clock resolution magic occurs. Say you
were clocked in and hacking away, and suddenly your cat chased a mouse who
scared a hamster that crashed into your UPS’s power button! You suddenly
lose all your buffers, but thanks to auto-save you still have your recent Org
mode changes, including your last clock in.

If you restart Emacs and clock into any task, Org will notice that you have a
dangling clock which was never clocked out from your last session. Using
that clock’s starting time as the beginning of the unaccounted-for period,
Org will ask how you want to resolve that time. The logic and behavior is
identical to dealing with away time due to idleness; it is just happening due
to a recovery event rather than a set amount of idle time.

You can also check all the files visited by your Org agenda for dangling
clocks at any time using M-x org-resolve-clocks RET (or C-c C-x C-z).

Continuous clocking

You may want to start clocking from the time when you clocked out the
previous task. To enable this systematically, set org-clock-continuously
to t. Each time you clock in, Org retrieves the clock-out time of the
last clocked entry for this session, and start the new clock from there.

If you only want this from time to time, use three universal prefix arguments
with org-clock-in and two C-u C-u with org-clock-in-last.

8.5 Effort estimates

If you want to plan your work in a very detailed way, or if you need to
produce offers with quotations of the estimated work effort, you may want to
assign effort estimates to entries. If you are also clocking your work, you
may later want to compare the planned effort with the actual working time, a
great way to improve planning estimates. Effort estimates are stored in a
special property ‘Effort’88. You can set the effort
for an entry with the following commands:

C-c C-x e (org-set-effort)

Set the effort estimate for the current entry. With a numeric prefix
argument, set it to the Nth allowed value (see below). This command is also
accessible from the agenda with the e key.

C-c C-x C-e (org-clock-modify-effort-estimate)

Modify the effort estimate of the item currently being clocked.

Clearly the best way to work with effort estimates is through column view
(see Column view). You should start by setting up discrete values for
effort estimates, and a COLUMNS format that displays these values
together with clock sums (if you want to clock your time). For a specific
buffer you can use

or, even better, you can set up these values globally by customizing the
variables org-global-properties and org-columns-default-format.
In particular if you want to use this setup also in the agenda, a global
setup may be advised.

The way to assign estimates to individual items is then to switch to column
mode, and to use S-right and S-left to change the
value. The values you enter will immediately be summed up in the hierarchy.
In the column next to it, any clocked time will be displayed.

If you switch to column view in the daily/weekly agenda, the effort column
will summarize the estimated work effort for each day89, and you can use this to find space in your schedule. To get
an overview of the entire part of the day that is committed, you can set the
option org-agenda-columns-add-appointments-to-effort-sum. The
appointments on a day that take place over a specified time interval will
then also be added to the load estimate of the day.

Effort estimates can be used in secondary agenda filtering that is triggered
with the / key in the agenda (see Agenda commands). If you have
these estimates defined consistently, two or three key presses will narrow
down the list to stuff that fits into an available time slot.

8.6 Taking notes with a relative timer

When taking notes during, for example, a meeting or a video viewing, it can
be useful to have access to times relative to a starting time. Org provides
such a relative timer and make it easy to create timed notes.

C-c C-x . (org-timer)

Insert a relative time into the buffer. The first time you use this, the
timer will be started. When called with a prefix argument, the timer is
restarted.

C-c C-x - (org-timer-item)

Insert a description list item with the current relative time. With a prefix
argument, first reset the timer to 0.

M-RET (org-insert-heading)

Once the timer list is started, you can also use M-RET to insert
new timer items.

C-c C-x ,

Pause the timer, or continue it if it is already paused
(org-timer-pause-or-continue).

C-u C-c C-x ,

Stop the timer. After this, you can only start a new timer, not continue the
old one. This command also removes the timer from the mode line.

C-c C-x 0 (org-timer-start)

Reset the timer without inserting anything into the buffer. By default, the
timer is reset to 0. When called with a C-u prefix, reset the timer to
specific starting offset. The user is prompted for the offset, with a
default taken from a timer string at point, if any, So this can be used to
restart taking notes after a break in the process. When called with a double
prefix argument C-u C-u, change all timer strings in the active region
by a certain amount. This can be used to fix timer strings if the timer was
not started at exactly the right moment.

8.7 Countdown timer

org-timer-set-timer prompts the user for a duration and displays a
countdown timer in the modeline. org-timer-default-timer sets the
default countdown value. Giving a prefix numeric argument overrides this
default value.

9 Capture - Refile - Archive

An important part of any organization system is the ability to quickly
capture new ideas and tasks, and to associate reference material with them.
Org does this using a process called capture. It also can store files
related to a task (attachments) in a special directory. Once in the
system, tasks and projects need to be moved around. Moving completed project
trees to an archive file keeps the system compact and fast.

9.1 Capture

Capture lets you quickly store notes with little interruption of your work
flow. Org’s method for capturing new items is heavily inspired by John
Wiegley excellent remember.el package. Up to version 6.36, Org
used a special setup for remember.el, then replaced it with
org-remember.el. As of version 8.0, org-remember.el has
been completely replaced by org-capture.el.

If your configuration depends on org-remember.el, you need to update
it and use the setup described below. To convert your
org-remember-templates, run the command

M-x org-capture-import-remember-templates RET

and then customize the new variable with M-x
customize-variable org-capture-templates, check the result, and save the
customization.

9.1.2 Using capture

C-c c (org-capture)

Call the command org-capture. Note that this keybinding is global and
not active by default: you need to install it. If you have templates
defined see Capture templates, it will offer these templates for
selection or use a new Org outline node as the default template. It will
insert the template into the target file and switch to an indirect buffer
narrowed to this new node. You may then insert the information you want.

C-c C-c (org-capture-finalize)

Once you have finished entering information into the capture buffer, C-c
C-c will return you to the window configuration before the capture process,
so that you can resume your work without further distraction. When called
with a prefix arg, finalize and then jump to the captured item.

C-c C-w (org-capture-refile)

Finalize the capture process by refiling (see Refile and copy) the note to
a different place. Please realize that this is a normal refiling command
that will be executed—so the cursor position at the moment you run this
command is important. If you have inserted a tree with a parent and
children, first move the cursor back to the parent. Any prefix argument
given to this command will be passed on to the org-refile command.

C-c C-k (org-capture-kill)

Abort the capture process and return to the previous state.

You can also call org-capture in a special way from the agenda, using
the k c key combination. With this access, any timestamps inserted by
the selected capture template will default to the cursor date in the agenda,
rather than to the current date.

To find the locations of the last stored capture, use org-capture with
prefix commands:

C-u C-c c

Visit the target location of a capture template. You get to select the
template in the usual way.

C-u C-u C-c c

Visit the last stored capture item in its buffer.

You can also jump to the bookmark org-capture-last-stored, which will
automatically be created unless you set org-capture-bookmark to
nil.

To insert the capture at point in an Org buffer, call org-capture with
a C-0 prefix argument.

9.1.3 Capture templates

You can use templates for different types of capture items, and
for different target locations. The easiest way to create such templates is
through the customize interface.

C-c c C

Customize the variable org-capture-templates.

Before we give the formal description of template definitions, let’s look at
an example. Say you would like to use one template to create general TODO
entries, and you want to put these entries under the heading ‘Tasks’ in
your file ~/org/gtd.org. Also, a date tree in the file
journal.org should capture journal entries. A possible configuration
would look like:

If you then press C-c c t, Org will prepare the template
for you like this:

* TODO
[[file:link to where you initiated capture]]

During expansion of the template, %a has been replaced by a link to
the location from where you called the capture command. This can be
extremely useful for deriving tasks from emails, for example. You fill in
the task definition, press C-c C-c and Org returns you to the same
place where you started the capture process.

To define special keys to capture to a particular template without going
through the interactive template selection, you can create your key binding
like this:

9.1.3.1 Template elements

Now lets look at the elements of a template definition. Each entry in
org-capture-templates is a list with the following items:

keys

The keys that will select the template, as a string, characters
only, for example "a" for a template to be selected with a
single key, or "bt" for selection with two keys. When using
several keys, keys using the same prefix key must be sequential
in the list and preceded by a 2-element entry explaining the
prefix key, for example

("b" "Templates for marking stuff to buy")

If you do not define a template for the C key, this key will
be used to open the customize buffer for this complex variable.

description

A short string describing the template, which will be shown during
selection.

type

The type of entry, a symbol. Valid values are:

entry

An Org mode node, with a headline. Will be filed as the child of the target
entry or as a top-level entry. The target file should be an Org mode file.

item

A plain list item, placed in the first plain list at the target
location. Again the target file should be an Org file.

checkitem

A checkbox item. This only differs from the plain list item by the
default template.

table-line

a new line in the first table at the target location. Where exactly the
line will be inserted depends on the properties :prepend and
:table-line-pos (see below).

plain

Text to be inserted as it is.

target

Specification of where the captured item should be placed. In Org mode
files, targets usually define a node. Entries will become children of this
node. Other types will be added to the table or list in the body of this
node. Most target specifications contain a file name. If that file name is
the empty string, it defaults to org-default-notes-file. A file can
also be given as a variable, function, or Emacs Lisp form.

Most general way, write your own function to find both
file and location.

template

The template for creating the capture item. If you leave this empty, an
appropriate default template will be used. Otherwise this is a string with
escape codes, which will be replaced depending on time and context of the
capture call. The string with escapes may be loaded from a template file,
using the special syntax (file "path/to/template"). See below for
more details.

properties

The rest of the entry is a property list of additional options.
Recognized properties are:

:prepend

Normally new captured information will be appended at
the target location (last child, last table line, last list item...).
Setting this property will change that.

:immediate-finish

When set, do not offer to edit the information, just
file it away immediately. This makes sense if the template only needs
information that can be added automatically.

:empty-lines

Set this to the number of lines to insert
before and after the new item. Default 0, only common other value is 1.

:clock-in

Start the clock in this item.

:clock-keep

Keep the clock running when filing the captured entry.

:clock-resume

If starting the capture interrupted a clock, restart that clock when finished
with the capture. Note that :clock-keep has precedence over
:clock-resume. When setting both to t, the current clock will
run and the previous one will not be resumed.

:unnarrowed

Do not narrow the target buffer, simply show the full buffer. Default is to
narrow it so that you only see the new material.

:table-line-pos

Specification of the location in the table where the new line should be
inserted. It should be a string like "II-3" meaning that the new
line should become the third line before the second horizontal separator
line.

:kill-buffer

If the target file was not yet visited when capture was invoked, kill the
buffer again after capture is completed.

9.1.3.2 Template expansion

In the template itself, special %-escapes92 allow
dynamic insertion of content. The templates are expanded in the order given here:

%[file] Insert the contents of the file given by file.
%(sexp) Evaluate Elisp sexp and replace with the result.For convenience, %:keyword (see below) placeholderswithin the expression will be expanded prior to this.The sexp must return a string.
%<...> The result of format-time-string on the ... format specification.
%t Timestamp, date only.
%T Timestamp, with date and time.
%u, %U Like the above, but inactive timestamps.
%i Initial content, the region when capture is called while theregion is active.The entire text will be indented like %i itself.
%a Annotation, normally the link created with org-store-link.
%A Like %a, but prompt for the description part.
%l Like %a, but only insert the literal link.
%c Current kill ring head.
%x Content of the X clipboard.
%k Title of the currently clocked task.
%K Link to the currently clocked task.
%n User name (taken from user-full-name).
%f File visited by current buffer when org-capture was called.
%F Full path of the file or directory visited by current buffer.
%:keyword Specific information for certain link types, see below.
%^g Prompt for tags, with completion on tags in target file.
%^G Prompt for tags, with completion all tags in all agenda files.
%^t Like %t, but prompt for date. Similarly %^T, %^u, %^U.You may define a prompt like %^{Birthday}t.
%^C Interactive selection of which kill or clip to use.
%^L Like %^C, but insert as link.
%^{prop}p Prompt the user for a value for property prop.
%^{prompt} prompt the user for a string and replace this sequence with it.You may specify a default value and a completion table with%^{prompt|default|completion2|completion3...}.The arrow keys access a prompt-specific history.
%\n Insert the text entered at the nth %^{prompt}, where n isa number, starting from 1.
%? After completing the template, position cursor here.

9.1.3.3 Templates in contexts

To control whether a capture template should be accessible from a specific
context, you can customize org-capture-templates-contexts. Let’s say
for example that you have a capture template "p" for storing Gnus
emails containing patches. Then you would configure this option like this:

9.2 Attachments

It is often useful to associate reference material with an outline node/task.
Small chunks of plain text can simply be stored in the subtree of a project.
Hyperlinks (see Hyperlinks) can establish associations with
files that live elsewhere on your computer or in the cloud, like emails or
source code files belonging to a project. Another method is attachments,
which are files located in a directory belonging to an outline node. Org
uses directories named by the unique ID of each entry. These directories are
located in the data directory which lives in the same directory where
your Org file lives95. If you initialize this directory with
git init, Org will automatically commit changes when it sees them.
The attachment system has been contributed to Org by John Wiegley.

In cases where it seems better to do so, you can also attach a directory of your
choice to an entry. You can also make children inherit the attachment
directory from a parent, so that an entire subtree uses the same attached
directory.

The following commands deal with attachments:

C-c C-a (org-attach)

The dispatcher for commands related to the attachment system. After these
keys, a list of commands is displayed and you must press an additional key
to select a command:

a (org-attach-attach)

Select a file and move it into the task’s attachment directory. The file
will be copied, moved, or linked, depending on org-attach-method.
Note that hard links are not supported on all systems.

c/m/l

Attach a file using the copy/move/link method.
Note that hard links are not supported on all systems.

n (org-attach-new)

Create a new attachment as an Emacs buffer.

z (org-attach-sync)

Synchronize the current task with its attachment directory, in case you added
attachments yourself.

o (org-attach-open)

Open current task’s attachment. If there is more than one, prompt for a
file name first. Opening will follow the rules set by org-file-apps.
For more details, see the information on following hyperlinks
(see Handling links).

O (org-attach-open-in-emacs)

Also open the attachment, but force opening the file in Emacs.

f (org-attach-reveal)

Open the current task’s attachment directory.

F (org-attach-reveal-in-emacs)

Also open the directory, but force using dired in Emacs.

d (org-attach-delete-one)

Select and delete a single attachment.

D (org-attach-delete-all)

Delete all of a task’s attachments. A safer way is to open the directory in
dired and delete from there.

s (org-attach-set-directory)

Set a specific directory as the entry’s attachment directory. This works by
putting the directory path into the ATTACH_DIR property.

i (org-attach-set-inherit)

Set the ATTACH_DIR_INHERIT property, so that children will use the
same directory for attachments as the parent does.

9.3 RSS feeds

Org can add and change entries based on information found in RSS feeds and
Atom feeds. You could use this to make a task out of each new podcast in a
podcast feed. Or you could use a phone-based note-creating service on the
web to import tasks into Org. To access feeds, configure the variable
org-feed-alist. The docstring of this variable has detailed
information. Here is just an example:

will configure that new items from the feed provided by
rss.slashdot.org will result in new entries in the file
~/org/feeds.org under the heading ‘Slashdot Entries’, whenever
the following command is used:

C-c C-x g (org-feed-update-all)

C-c C-x g

Collect items from the feeds configured in org-feed-alist and act upon
them.

C-c C-x G (org-feed-goto-inbox)

Prompt for a feed name and go to the inbox configured for this feed.

Under the same headline, Org will create a drawer ‘FEEDSTATUS’ in which
it will store information about the status of items in the feed, to avoid
adding the same item several times. You should add ‘FEEDSTATUS’ to the
list of drawers in that file:

#+DRAWERS: LOGBOOK PROPERTIES FEEDSTATUS

For more information, including how to read atom feeds, see
org-feed.el and the docstring of org-feed-alist.

9.4 Protocols for external access

You can set up Org for handling protocol calls from outside applications that
are passed to Emacs through the emacsserver. For example, you can
configure bookmarks in your web browser to send a link to the current page to
Org and create a note from it using capture (see Capture). Or you
could create a bookmark that will tell Emacs to open the local source file of
a remote website you are looking at with the browser. See
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-protocol.php for detailed
documentation and setup instructions.

9.5 Refile and copy

When reviewing the captured data, you may want to refile or to copy some of
the entries into a different list, for example into a project. Cutting,
finding the right location, and then pasting the note is cumbersome. To
simplify this process, you can use the following special command:

C-c M-w (org-copy)

Copying works like refiling, except that the original note is not deleted.

C-c C-w (org-refile)

Refile the entry or region at point. This command offers possible locations
for refiling the entry and lets you select one with completion. The item (or
all items in the region) is filed below the target heading as a subitem.
Depending on org-reverse-note-order, it will be either the first or
last subitem.
By default, all level 1 headlines in the current buffer are considered to be
targets, but you can have more complex definitions across a number of files.
See the variable org-refile-targets for details. If you would like to
select a location via a file-path-like completion along the outline path, see
the variables org-refile-use-outline-path and
org-outline-path-complete-in-steps. If you would like to be able to
create new nodes as new parents for refiling on the fly, check the
variable org-refile-allow-creating-parent-nodes.
When the variable org-log-refile96 is set, a timestamp or a note will be
recorded when an entry has been refiled.

C-u C-c C-w

Use the refile interface to jump to a heading.

C-u C-u C-c C-w (org-refile-goto-last-stored)

Jump to the location where org-refile last moved a tree to.

C-2 C-c C-w

Refile as the child of the item currently being clocked.

C-3 C-c C-w

Refile and keep the entry in place. Also see org-refile-keep to make
this the default behavior, and beware that this may result in duplicated
ID properties.

C-0 C-c C-w or C-u C-u C-u C-c C-w (org-refile-cache-clear)

Clear the target cache. Caching of refile targets can be turned on by
setting org-refile-use-cache. To make the command see new possible
targets, you have to clear the cache with this command.

9.6 Archiving

When a project represented by a (sub)tree is finished, you may want
to move the tree out of the way and to stop it from contributing to the
agenda. Archiving is important to keep your working files compact and global
searches like the construction of agenda views fast.

C-c C-x C-a (org-archive-subtree-default)

Archive the current entry using the command specified in the variable
org-archive-default-command.

9.6.1 Moving a tree to the archive file

The most common archiving action is to move a project tree to another file,
the archive file.

C-c C-x C-sor shortC-c $ (org-archive-subtree)

Archive the subtree starting at the cursor position to the location
given by org-archive-location.

C-u C-c C-x C-s

Check if any direct children of the current headline could be moved to
the archive. To do this, each subtree is checked for open TODO entries.
If none are found, the command offers to move it to the archive
location. If the cursor is not on a headline when this command
is invoked, the level 1 trees will be checked.

The default archive location is a file in the same directory as the
current file, with the name derived by appending _archive to the
current file name. You can also choose what heading to file archived
items under, with the possibility to add them to a datetree in a file.
For information and examples on how to specify the file and the heading,
see the documentation string of the variable
org-archive-location.

There is also an in-buffer option for setting this variable, for
example97:

#+ARCHIVE: %s_done::

If you would like to have a special ARCHIVE location for a single entry
or a (sub)tree, give the entry an :ARCHIVE: property with the
location as the value (see Properties and Columns).

When a subtree is moved, it receives a number of special properties that
record context information like the file from where the entry came, its
outline path the archiving time etc. Configure the variable
org-archive-save-context-info to adjust the amount of information
added.

9.6.2 Internal archiving

If you want to just switch off (for agenda views) certain subtrees without
moving them to a different file, you can use the ARCHIVE tag.

A headline that is marked with the ARCHIVE tag (see Tags) stays at
its location in the outline tree, but behaves in the following way:

-
It does not open when you attempt to do so with a visibility cycling
command (see Visibility cycling). You can force cycling archived
subtrees with C-TAB, or by setting the option
org-cycle-open-archived-trees. Also normal outline commands like
show-all will open archived subtrees.

-
During agenda view construction (see Agenda Views), the content of
archived trees is ignored unless you configure the option
org-agenda-skip-archived-trees, in which case these trees will always
be included. In the agenda you can press v a to get archives
temporarily included.

-
Archived trees are not exported (see Exporting), only the headline
is. Configure the details using the variable
org-export-with-archived-trees.

-
Archived trees are excluded from column view unless the variable
org-columns-skip-archived-trees is configured to nil.

The following commands help manage the ARCHIVE tag:

C-c C-x a (org-toggle-archive-tag)

Toggle the ARCHIVE tag for the current headline. When the tag is set,
the headline changes to a shadowed face, and the subtree below it is
hidden.

C-u C-c C-x a

Check if any direct children of the current headline should be archived.
To do this, each subtree is checked for open TODO entries. If none are
found, the command offers to set the ARCHIVE tag for the child. If the
cursor is not on a headline when this command is invoked, the
level 1 trees will be checked.

C-TAB (org-force-cycle-archived)

Cycle a tree even if it is tagged with ARCHIVE.

C-c C-x A (org-archive-to-archive-sibling)

Move the current entry to the Archive Sibling. This is a sibling of
the entry with the heading ‘Archive’ and the tag ‘ARCHIVE’. The
entry becomes a child of that sibling and in this way retains a lot of its
original context, including inherited tags and approximate position in the
outline.

10 Agenda views

Due to the way Org works, TODO items, time-stamped items, and
tagged headlines can be scattered throughout a file or even a number of
files. To get an overview of open action items, or of events that are
important for a particular date, this information must be collected,
sorted and displayed in an organized way.

Org can select items based on various criteria and display them
in a separate buffer. Seven different view types are provided:

an agenda that is like a calendar and shows information
for specific dates,

a TODO list that covers all unfinished
action items,

a match view, showings headlines based on the tags, properties, and
TODO state associated with them,

a timeline view that shows all events in a single Org file,
in time-sorted view,

a text search view that shows all entries from multiple files
that contain specified keywords,

a stuck projects view showing projects that currently don’t move
along, and

custom views that are special searches and combinations of different
views.

The extracted information is displayed in a special agenda
buffer. This buffer is read-only, but provides commands to visit the
corresponding locations in the original Org files, and even to
edit these files remotely.

Two variables control how the agenda buffer is displayed and whether the
window configuration is restored when the agenda exits:
org-agenda-window-setup and
org-agenda-restore-windows-after-quit.

10.1 Agenda files

The information to be shown is normally collected from all agenda
files, the files listed in the variable
org-agenda-files98. If a directory is part of this list,
all files with the extension .org in this directory will be part
of the list.

Thus, even if you only work with a single Org file, that file should
be put into the list99. You can customize org-agenda-files, but
the easiest way to maintain it is through the following commands

C-c [ (org-agenda-file-to-front)

Add current file to the list of agenda files. The file is added to
the front of the list. If it was already in the list, it is moved to
the front. With a prefix argument, file is added/moved to the end.

C-c ] (org-remove-file)

Remove current file from the list of agenda files.

C-' (org-cycle-agenda-files)

C-,

Cycle through agenda file list, visiting one file after the other.

M-x org-iswitchb RET

Command to use an iswitchb-like interface to switch to and between Org
buffers.

The Org menu contains the current list of files and can be used
to visit any of them.

If you would like to focus the agenda temporarily on a file not in
this list, or on just one file in the list, or even on only a subtree in a
file, then this can be done in different ways. For a single agenda command,
you may press < once or several times in the dispatcher
(see Agenda dispatcher). To restrict the agenda scope for an
extended period, use the following commands:

C-c C-x < (org-agenda-set-restriction-lock)

Permanently restrict the agenda to the current subtree. When with a
prefix argument, or with the cursor before the first headline in a file,
the agenda scope is set to the entire file. This restriction remains in
effect until removed with C-c C-x >, or by typing either <
or > in the agenda dispatcher. If there is a window displaying an
agenda view, the new restriction takes effect immediately.

C-c C-x > (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)

Remove the permanent restriction created by C-c C-x <.

When working with speedbar.el, you can use the following commands in
the Speedbar frame:

< in the speedbar frame (org-speedbar-set-agenda-restriction)

Permanently restrict the agenda to the item—either an Org file or a subtree
in such a file—at the cursor in the Speedbar frame.
If there is a window displaying an agenda view, the new restriction takes
effect immediately.

10.2 The agenda dispatcher

The views are created through a dispatcher, which should be bound to a
global key—for example C-c a (see Activation). In the
following we will assume that C-c a is indeed how the dispatcher
is accessed and list keyboard access to commands accordingly. After
pressing C-c a, an additional letter is required to execute a
command. The dispatcher offers the following default commands:

Create a list of entries selected by a boolean expression of keywords
and/or regular expressions that must or must not occur in the entry.

/

Search for a regular expression in all agenda files and additionally in
the files listed in org-agenda-text-search-extra-files. This
uses the Emacs command multi-occur. A prefix argument can be
used to specify the number of context lines for each match, default is
1.

Restrict an agenda command to the current buffer100. After pressing <, you still need to press the character
selecting the command.

< <

If there is an active region, restrict the following agenda command to
the region. Otherwise, restrict it to the current subtree101. After pressing < <, you still need to press the
character selecting the command.

*

Toggle sticky agenda views. By default, Org maintains only a single agenda
buffer and rebuilds it each time you change the view, to make sure everything
is always up to date. If you switch between views often and the build time
bothers you, you can turn on sticky agenda buffers (make this the default by
customizing the variable org-agenda-sticky). With sticky agendas, the
dispatcher only switches to the selected view, you need to update it by hand
with r or g. You can toggle sticky agenda view any time with
org-toggle-sticky-agenda.

You can also define custom commands that will be accessible through the
dispatcher, just like the default commands. This includes the
possibility to create extended agenda buffers that contain several
blocks together, for example the weekly agenda, the global TODO list and
a number of special tags matches. See Custom agenda views.

10.3.1 The weekly/daily agenda

The purpose of the weekly/daily agenda is to act like a page of a
paper agenda, showing all the tasks for the current week or day.

C-c a a (org-agenda-list)

Compile an agenda for the current week from a list of Org files. The agenda
shows the entries for each day. With a numeric prefix102 (like C-u 2 1
C-c a a) you may set the number of days to be displayed.

The default number of days displayed in the agenda is set by the variable
org-agenda-span (or the obsolete org-agenda-ndays). This
variable can be set to any number of days you want to see by default in the
agenda, or to a span name, such as day, week, month or
year. For weekly agendas, the default is to start on the previous
monday (see org-agenda-start-on-weekday). You can also set the start
date using a date shift: (setq org-agenda-start-day "+10d") will
start the agenda ten days from today in the future.

Remote editing from the agenda buffer means, for example, that you can
change the dates of deadlines and appointments from the agenda buffer.
The commands available in the Agenda buffer are listed in Agenda commands.

Calendar/Diary integration

Emacs contains the calendar and diary by Edward M. Reingold. The
calendar displays a three-month calendar with holidays from different
countries and cultures. The diary allows you to keep track of
anniversaries, lunar phases, sunrise/set, recurrent appointments
(weekly, monthly) and more. In this way, it is quite complementary to
Org. It can be very useful to combine output from Org with
the diary.

In order to include entries from the Emacs diary into Org mode’s
agenda, you only need to customize the variable

(setq org-agenda-include-diary t)

After that, everything will happen automatically. All diary
entries including holidays, anniversaries, etc., will be included in the
agenda buffer created by Org mode. SPC, TAB, and
RET can be used from the agenda buffer to jump to the diary
file in order to edit existing diary entries. The i command to
insert new entries for the current date works in the agenda buffer, as
well as the commands S, M, and C to display
Sunrise/Sunset times, show lunar phases and to convert to other
calendars, respectively. c can be used to switch back and forth
between calendar and agenda.

If you are using the diary only for sexp entries and holidays, it is
faster to not use the above setting, but instead to copy or even move
the entries into an Org file. Org mode evaluates diary-style sexp
entries, and does it faster because there is no overhead for first
creating the diary display. Note that the sexp entries must start at
the left margin, no whitespace is allowed before them. For example,
the following segment of an Org file will be processed and entries
will be made in the agenda:

Anniversaries from BBDB

If you are using the Big Brothers Database to store your contacts, you will
very likely prefer to store anniversaries in BBDB rather than in a
separate Org or diary file. Org supports this and will show BBDB
anniversaries as part of the agenda. All you need to do is to add the
following to one of your agenda files:

You can then go ahead and define anniversaries for a BBDB record. Basically,
you need to press C-o anniversary RET with the cursor in a BBDB
record and then add the date in the format YYYY-MM-DD or MM-DD,
followed by a space and the class of the anniversary (‘birthday’ or
‘wedding’, or a format string). If you omit the class, it will default to
‘birthday’. Here are a few examples, the header for the file
org-bbdb.el contains more detailed information.

After a change to BBDB, or for the first agenda display during an Emacs
session, the agenda display will suffer a short delay as Org updates its
hash with anniversaries. However, from then on things will be very fast—much
faster in fact than a long list of ‘%%(diary-anniversary)’ entries
in an Org or Diary file.

Appointment reminders

Org can interact with Emacs appointments notification facility. To add the
appointments of your agenda files, use the command org-agenda-to-appt.
This command lets you filter through the list of your appointments and add
only those belonging to a specific category or matching a regular expression.
It also reads a APPT_WARNTIME property which will then override the
value of appt-message-warning-time for this appointment. See the
docstring for details.

10.3.2 The global TODO list

The global TODO list contains all unfinished TODO items formatted and
collected into a single place.

C-c a t (org-todo-list)

Show the global TODO list. This collects the TODO items from all agenda
files (see Agenda Views) into a single buffer. By default, this lists
items with a state the is not a DONE state. The buffer is in
agenda-mode, so there are commands to examine and manipulate the TODO
entries directly from that buffer (see Agenda commands).

C-c a T (org-todo-list)

Like the above, but allows selection of a specific TODO keyword. You can
also do this by specifying a prefix argument to C-c a t. You are
prompted for a keyword, and you may also specify several keywords by
separating them with ‘|’ as the boolean OR operator. With a numeric
prefix, the Nth keyword in org-todo-keywords is selected.
The r key in the agenda buffer regenerates it, and you can give
a prefix argument to this command to change the selected TODO keyword,
for example 3 r. If you often need a search for a specific
keyword, define a custom command for it (see Agenda dispatcher).
Matching specific TODO keywords can also be done as part of a tags
search (see Tag searches).

Remote editing of TODO items means that you can change the state of a
TODO entry with a single key press. The commands available in the
TODO list are described in Agenda commands.

Normally the global TODO list simply shows all headlines with TODO
keywords. This list can become very long. There are two ways to keep
it more compact:

-
Some people view a TODO item that has been scheduled for execution or
have a deadline (see Timestamps) as no longer open.
Configure the variables org-agenda-todo-ignore-scheduled,
org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadlines,
org-agenda-todo-ignore-timestamp and/or
org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-date to exclude such items from the global
TODO list.

-
TODO items may have sublevels to break up the task into subtasks. In
such cases it may be enough to list only the highest level TODO headline
and omit the sublevels from the global list. Configure the variable
org-agenda-todo-list-sublevels to get this behavior.

10.3.3 Matching tags and properties

If headlines in the agenda files are marked with tags (see Tags),
or have properties (see Properties and Columns), you can select headlines
based on this metadata and collect them into an agenda buffer. The match
syntax described here also applies when creating sparse trees with C-c /
m.

C-c a m (org-tags-view)

Produce a list of all headlines that match a given set of tags. The
command prompts for a selection criterion, which is a boolean logic
expression with tags, like ‘+work+urgent-withboss’ or
‘work|home’ (see Tags). If you often need a specific search,
define a custom command for it (see Agenda dispatcher).

C-c a M (org-tags-view)

Like C-c a m, but only select headlines that are also TODO items in a
not-DONE state and force checking subitems (see variable
org-tags-match-list-sublevels). To exclude scheduled/deadline items,
see the variable org-agenda-tags-todo-honor-ignore-options. Matching
specific TODO keywords together with a tags match is also possible, see
Tag searches.

Match syntax

A search string can use Boolean operators ‘&’ for AND and
‘|’ for OR. ‘&’ binds more strongly than ‘|’.
Parentheses are not implemented. Each element in the search is either a
tag, a regular expression matching tags, or an expression like
PROPERTY OPERATOR VALUE with a comparison operator, accessing a
property value. Each element may be preceded by ‘-’, to select
against it, and ‘+’ is syntactic sugar for positive selection. The
AND operator ‘&’ is optional when ‘+’ or ‘-’ is
present. Here are some examples, using only tags.

‘work’

Select headlines tagged ‘:work:’.

‘work&boss’

Select headlines tagged ‘:work:’ and ‘:boss:’.

‘+work-boss’

Select headlines tagged ‘:work:’, but discard those also tagged
‘:boss:’.

‘work|laptop’

Selects lines tagged ‘:work:’ or ‘:laptop:’.

‘work|laptop+night’

Like before, but require the ‘:laptop:’ lines to be tagged also
‘:night:’.

Instead of a tag, you may also specify a regular expression enclosed in curly
braces. For example,
‘work+{^boss.*}’ matches headlines that contain the tag
‘:work:’ and any tag starting with ‘boss’.

Group tags (see Tag groups) are expanded as regular expressions. E.g.,
if ‘:work:’ is a group tag for the group ‘:work:lab:conf:’, then
searching for ‘work’ will search for ‘{\(?:work\|lab\|conf\)}’
and searching for ‘-work’ will search for all headlines but those with
one of the tag in the group (i.e., ‘-{\(?:work\|lab\|conf\)}’).

You may also test for properties (see Properties and Columns) at the same
time as matching tags. The properties may be real properties, or special
properties that represent other metadata (see Special properties). For
example, the “property” TODO represents the TODO keyword of the
entry and the “property” PRIORITY represents the PRIORITY keyword of
the entry. The ITEM special property cannot currently be used in tags/property
searches104.

Except the see Special properties, one other “property” can also be
used. LEVEL represents the level of an entry. So a search
‘+LEVEL=3+boss-TODO="DONE"’ lists all level three headlines that have
the tag ‘boss’ and are not marked with the TODO keyword DONE.
In buffers with org-odd-levels-only set, ‘LEVEL’ does not count
the number of stars, but ‘LEVEL=2’ will correspond to 3 stars etc.

The type of comparison will depend on how the comparison value is written:

- If the comparison value is a plain number, a numerical comparison is done,
and the allowed operators are ‘<’, ‘=’, ‘>’, ‘<=’,
‘>=’, and ‘<>’.

- If the comparison value is enclosed in double-quotes,
a string comparison is done, and the same operators are allowed.

- If the comparison value is enclosed in double-quotes and angular
brackets (like ‘DEADLINE<="<2008-12-24 18:30>"’), both values are
assumed to be date/time specifications in the standard Org way, and the
comparison will be done accordingly. Special values that will be recognized
are "<now>" for now (including time), and "<today>", and
"<tomorrow>" for these days at 0:00 hours, i.e., without a time
specification. Also strings like "<+5d>" or "<-2m>" with units
d, w, m, and y for day, week, month, and year,
respectively, can be used.

- If the comparison value is enclosed
in curly braces, a regexp match is performed, with ‘=’ meaning that the
regexp matches the property value, and ‘<>’ meaning that it does not
match.

So the search string in the example finds entries tagged ‘:work:’ but
not ‘:boss:’, which also have a priority value ‘A’, a
‘:Coffee:’ property with the value ‘unlimited’, an ‘Effort’
property that is numerically smaller than 2, a ‘:With:’ property that is
matched by the regular expression ‘Sarah\|Denny’, and that are scheduled
on or after October 11, 2008.

Accessing TODO, LEVEL, and CATEGORY during a search is fast. Accessing any
other properties will slow down the search. However, once you have paid the
price by accessing one property, testing additional properties is cheap
again.

You can configure Org mode to use property inheritance during a search, but
beware that this can slow down searches considerably. See Property inheritance, for details.

For backward compatibility, and also for typing speed, there is also a
different way to test TODO states in a search. For this, terminate the
tags/property part of the search string (which may include several terms
connected with ‘|’) with a ‘/’ and then specify a Boolean
expression just for TODO keywords. The syntax is then similar to that for
tags, but should be applied with care: for example, a positive selection on
several TODO keywords cannot meaningfully be combined with boolean AND.
However, negative selection combined with AND can be meaningful. To
make sure that only lines are checked that actually have any TODO keyword
(resulting in a speed-up), use C-c a M, or equivalently start the TODO
part after the slash with ‘!’. Using C-c a M or ‘/!’ will
not match TODO keywords in a DONE state. Examples:

10.3.5 Search view

This agenda view is a general text search facility for Org mode entries.
It is particularly useful to find notes.

C-c a s (org-search-view)

This is a special search that lets you select entries by matching a substring
or specific words using a boolean logic.

For example, the search string ‘computer equipment’ will find entries
that contain ‘computer equipment’ as a substring. If the two words are
separated by more space or a line break, the search will still match.
Search view can also search for specific keywords in the entry, using Boolean
logic. The search string ‘+computer +wifi -ethernet -{8\.11[bg]}’
will search for note entries that contain the keywords computer
and wifi, but not the keyword ethernet, and which are also
not matched by the regular expression 8\.11[bg], meaning to
exclude both 8.11b and 8.11g. The first ‘+’ is necessary to turn on
word search, other ‘+’ characters are optional. For more details, see
the docstring of the command org-search-view.

Note that in addition to the agenda files, this command will also search
the files listed in org-agenda-text-search-extra-files.

10.3.6 Stuck projects

If you are following a system like David Allen’s GTD to organize your
work, one of the “duties” you have is a regular review to make sure
that all projects move along. A stuck project is a project that
has no defined next actions, so it will never show up in the TODO lists
Org mode produces. During the review, you need to identify such
projects and define next actions for them.

C-c a # (org-agenda-list-stuck-projects)

List projects that are stuck.

C-c a !

Customize the variable org-stuck-projects to define what a stuck
project is and how to find it.

You almost certainly will have to configure this view before it will
work for you. The built-in default assumes that all your projects are
level-2 headlines, and that a project is not stuck if it has at least
one entry marked with a TODO keyword TODO or NEXT or NEXTACTION.

Let’s assume that you, in your own way of using Org mode, identify
projects with a tag PROJECT, and that you use a TODO keyword MAYBE to
indicate a project that should not be considered yet. Let’s further
assume that the TODO keyword DONE marks finished projects, and that NEXT
and TODO indicate next actions. The tag @SHOP indicates shopping and
is a next action even without the NEXT tag. Finally, if the project
contains the special word IGNORE anywhere, it should not be listed
either. In this case you would start by identifying eligible projects
with a tags/todo match105
‘+PROJECT/-MAYBE-DONE’, and then check for TODO, NEXT, @SHOP, and
IGNORE in the subtree to identify projects that are not stuck. The
correct customization for this is

10.4 Presentation and sorting

Before displaying items in an agenda view, Org mode visually prepares the
items and sorts them. Each item occupies a single line. The line starts
with a prefix that contains the category (see Categories)
of the item and other important information. You can customize in which
column tags will be displayed through org-agenda-tags-column. You can
also customize the prefix using the option org-agenda-prefix-format.
This prefix is followed by a cleaned-up version of the outline headline
associated with the item.

10.4.2 Time-of-day specifications

Org mode checks each agenda item for a time-of-day specification. The
time can be part of the timestamp that triggered inclusion into the
agenda, for example as in ‘<2005-05-10 Tue 19:00>’. Time
ranges can be specified with two timestamps, like
‘<2005-05-10 Tue 20:30>--<2005-05-10 Tue 22:15>’.

In the headline of the entry itself, a time(range) may also appear as
plain text (like ‘12:45’ or a ‘8:30-1pm’). If the agenda
integrates the Emacs diary (see Weekly/daily agenda), time
specifications in diary entries are recognized as well.

For agenda display, Org mode extracts the time and displays it in a
standard 24 hour format as part of the prefix. The example times in
the previous paragraphs would end up in the agenda like this:

8:30-13:00 Arthur Dent lies in front of the bulldozer
12:45...... Ford Prefect arrives and takes Arthur to the pub
19:00...... The Vogon reads his poem
20:30-22:15 Marvin escorts the Hitchhikers to the bridge

If the agenda is in single-day mode, or for the display of today, the
timed entries are embedded in a time grid, like

10.4.3 Sorting agenda items

Before being inserted into a view, the items are sorted. How this is
done depends on the type of view.

For the daily/weekly agenda, the items for each day are sorted. The
default order is to first collect all items containing an explicit
time-of-day specification. These entries will be shown at the beginning
of the list, as a schedule for the day. After that, items remain
grouped in categories, in the sequence given by org-agenda-files.
Within each category, items are sorted by priority (see Priorities),
which is composed of the base priority (2000 for priority ‘A’, 1000
for ‘B’, and 0 for ‘C’), plus additional increments for
overdue scheduled or deadline items.

For the TODO list, items remain in the order of categories, but within
each category, sorting takes place according to priority
(see Priorities). The priority used for sorting derives from the
priority cookie, with additions depending on how close an item is to its due
or scheduled date.

For tags matches, items are not sorted at all, but just appear in the
sequence in which they are found in the agenda files.

Sorting can be customized using the variable
org-agenda-sorting-strategy, and may also include criteria based on
the estimated effort of an entry (see Effort estimates).

10.4.4 Filtering/limiting agenda items

Agenda built-in or customized commands are statically defined. Agenda
filters and limits provide two ways of dynamically narrowing down the list of
agenda entries: fitlers and limits. Filters only act on the
display of the items, while limits take effect before the list of agenda
entries is built. Filter are more often used interactively, while limits are
mostly useful when defined as local variables within custom agenda commands.

Filtering in the agenda

/ (org-agenda-filter-by-tag)

Filter the agenda view with respect to a tag and/or effort estimates. The
difference between this and a custom agenda command is that filtering is very
fast, so that you can switch quickly between different filters without having
to recreate the agenda.107

You will be prompted for a tag selection letter; SPC will mean any tag at
all. Pressing TAB at that prompt will offer use completion to select a
tag (including any tags that do not have a selection character). The command
then hides all entries that do not contain or inherit this tag. When called
with prefix arg, remove the entries that do have the tag. A second
/ at the prompt will turn off the filter and unhide any hidden entries.
If the first key you press is either + or -, the previous filter
will be narrowed by requiring or forbidding the selected additional tag.
Instead of pressing + or - after /, you can also
immediately use the \ command.

In order to filter for effort estimates, you should set up allowed
efforts globally, for example

You can then filter for an effort by first typing an operator, one of
<, >, and =, and then the one-digit index of an effort
estimate in your array of allowed values, where 0 means the 10th value.
The filter will then restrict to entries with effort smaller-or-equal, equal,
or larger-or-equal than the selected value. If the digits 0–9 are not used
as fast access keys to tags, you can also simply press the index digit
directly without an operator. In this case, < will be assumed. For
application of the operator, entries without a defined effort will be treated
according to the value of org-sort-agenda-noeffort-is-high. To filter
for tasks without effort definition, press ? as the operator.

Org also supports automatic, context-aware tag filtering. If the variable
org-agenda-auto-exclude-function is set to a user-defined function,
that function can decide which tags should be excluded from the agenda
automatically. Once this is set, the / command then accepts RET
as a sub-option key and runs the auto exclusion logic. For example, let’s
say you use a Net tag to identify tasks which need network access, an
Errand tag for errands in town, and a Call tag for making phone
calls. You could auto-exclude these tags based on the availability of the
Internet, and outside of business hours, with something like this:

Narrow the current agenda filter by an additional condition. When called with
prefix arg, remove the entries that do have the tag, or that do match
the effort criterion. You can achieve the same effect by pressing + or
- as the first key after the / command.

[ ] { }

in search view

add new search words ([ and ]) or new regular expressions
({ and }) to the query string. The opening bracket/brace will
add a positive search term prefixed by ‘+’, indicating that this search
term must occur/match in the entry. The closing bracket/brace will add a
negative search term which must not occur/match in the entry for it to be
selected.

< (org-agenda-filter-by-category)

Filter the current agenda view with respect to the category of the item at
point. Pressing < another time will remove this filter. You can add
a filter preset through the option org-agenda-category-filter-preset
(see below.)

^ (org-agenda-filter-by-top-headline)

Filter the current agenda view and only display the siblings and the parent
headline of the one at point.

= (org-agenda-filter-by-regexp)

Filter the agenda view by a regular expression: only show agenda entries
matching the regular expression the user entered. When called with a prefix
argument, it will filter out entries matching the regexp. With two
universal prefix arguments, it will remove all the regexp filters, which can
be accumulated. You can add a filter preset through the option
org-agenda-category-filter-preset (see below.)

| (org-agenda-filter-remove-all)

Remove all filters in the current agenda view.

Setting limits for the agenda

Here is a list of options that you can set, either globally, or locally in
your custom agenda viewssee Custom agenda views.

org-agenda-max-entries

Limit the number of entries.

org-agenda-max-effort

Limit the duration of accumulated efforts (as minutes).

org-agenda-max-todos

Limit the number of entries with TODO keywords.

org-agenda-max-tags

Limit the number of tagged entries.

When set to a positive integer, each option will exclude entries from other
categories: for example, (setq org-agenda-max-effort 100) will limit
the agenda to 100 minutes of effort and exclude any entry that as no effort
property. If you want to include entries with no effort property, use a
negative value for org-agenda-max-effort.

One useful setup is to use org-agenda-max-entries locally in a custom
command. For example, this custom command will display the next five entries
with a NEXT TODO keyword.

10.5 Commands in the agenda buffer

Entries in the agenda buffer are linked back to the Org file or diary
file where they originate. You are not allowed to edit the agenda
buffer itself, but commands are provided to show and jump to the
original entry location, and to edit the Org files “remotely” from
the agenda buffer. In this way, all information is stored only once,
removing the risk that your agenda and note files may diverge.

Some commands can be executed with mouse clicks on agenda lines. For
the other commands, the cursor needs to be in the desired line.

Motion

n (org-agenda-next-line)

Next line (same as down and C-n).

p (org-agenda-previous-line)

Previous line (same as up and C-p).

View/Go to Org file

SPCormouse-3 (org-agenda-show-and-scroll-up)

Display the original location of the item in another window.
With prefix arg, make sure that the entire entry is made visible in the
outline, not only the heading.

L (org-agenda-recenter)

Display original location and recenter that window.

TABormouse-2 (org-agenda-goto)

Go to the original location of the item in another window.

RET (org-agenda-switch-to)

Go to the original location of the item and delete other windows.

F (org-agenda-follow-mode)

Toggle Follow mode. In Follow mode, as you move the cursor through
the agenda buffer, the other window always shows the corresponding
location in the Org file. The initial setting for this mode in new
agenda buffers can be set with the variable
org-agenda-start-with-follow-mode.

C-c C-x b (org-agenda-tree-to-indirect-buffer)

Display the entire subtree of the current item in an indirect buffer. With a
numeric prefix argument N, go up to level N and then take that tree. If N is
negative, go up that many levels. With a C-u prefix, do not remove the
previously used indirect buffer.

C-c C-o (org-agenda-open-link)

Follow a link in the entry. This will offer a selection of any links in the
text belonging to the referenced Org node. If there is only one link, it
will be followed without a selection prompt.

Change display

A

Interactively select another agenda view and append it to the current view.

o

Delete other windows.

v dor shortd (org-agenda-day-view)

v wor shortw (org-agenda-week-view)

v t (org-agenda-fortnight-view)

v m (org-agenda-month-view)

v y (org-agenda-year-view)

v SPC (org-agenda-reset-view)

Switch to day/week/month/year view. When switching to day or week view, this
setting becomes the default for subsequent agenda refreshes. Since month and
year views are slow to create, they do not become the default. A numeric
prefix argument may be used to jump directly to a specific day of the year,
ISO week, month, or year, respectively. For example, 32 d jumps to
February 1st, 9 w to ISO week number 9. When setting day, week, or
month view, a year may be encoded in the prefix argument as well. For
example, 200712 w will jump to week 12 in 2007. If such a year
specification has only one or two digits, it will be mapped to the interval
1938–2037. v SPC will reset to what is set in
org-agenda-span.

f (org-agenda-later)

Go forward in time to display the following org-agenda-current-span days.
For example, if the display covers a week, switch to the following week.
With prefix arg, go forward that many times org-agenda-current-span days.

Toggle Logbook mode. In Logbook mode, entries that were marked DONE while
logging was on (variable org-log-done) are shown in the agenda, as are
entries that have been clocked on that day. You can configure the entry
types that should be included in log mode using the variable
org-agenda-log-mode-items. When called with a C-u prefix, show
all possible logbook entries, including state changes. When called with two
prefix arguments C-u C-u, show only logging information, nothing else.
v L is equivalent to C-u v l.

v [or short[ (org-agenda-manipulate-query-add)

Include inactive timestamps into the current view. Only for weekly/daily
agenda and timeline views.

v a (org-agenda-archives-mode)

v A (org-agenda-archives-mode 'files)

Toggle Archives mode. In Archives mode, trees that are marked
ARCHIVED are also scanned when producing the agenda. When you use the
capital A, even all archive files are included. To exit archives mode,
press v a again.

v Ror shortR (org-agenda-clockreport-mode)

Toggle Clockreport mode. In Clockreport mode, the daily/weekly agenda will
always show a table with the clocked times for the time span and file scope
covered by the current agenda view. The initial setting for this mode in new
agenda buffers can be set with the variable
org-agenda-start-with-clockreport-mode. By using a prefix argument
when toggling this mode (i.e., C-u R), the clock table will not show
contributions from entries that are hidden by agenda filtering109. See
also the variable org-clock-report-include-clocking-task.

v c

Show overlapping clock entries, clocking gaps, and other clocking problems in
the current agenda range. You can then visit clocking lines and fix them
manually. See the variable org-agenda-clock-consistency-checks for
information on how to customize the definition of what constituted a clocking
problem. To return to normal agenda display, press l to exit Logbook
mode.

v Eor shortE (org-agenda-entry-text-mode)

Toggle entry text mode. In entry text mode, a number of lines from the Org
outline node referenced by an agenda line will be displayed below the line.
The maximum number of lines is given by the variable
org-agenda-entry-text-maxlines. Calling this command with a numeric
prefix argument will temporarily modify that number to the prefix value.

G (org-agenda-toggle-time-grid)

Toggle the time grid on and off. See also the variables
org-agenda-use-time-grid and org-agenda-time-grid.

r (org-agenda-redo)

Recreate the agenda buffer, for example to reflect the changes after
modification of the timestamps of items with S-left and
S-right. When the buffer is the global TODO list, a prefix
argument is interpreted to create a selective list for a specific TODO
keyword.

g (org-agenda-redo)

Same as r.

C-x C-sor shorts (org-save-all-org-buffers)

Save all Org buffers in the current Emacs session, and also the locations of
IDs.

C-c C-x C-c (org-agenda-columns)

Invoke column view (see Column view) in the agenda buffer. The column
view format is taken from the entry at point, or (if there is no entry at
point), from the first entry in the agenda view. So whatever the format for
that entry would be in the original buffer (taken from a property, from a
#+COLUMNS line, or from the default variable
org-columns-default-format), will be used in the agenda.

C-c C-x > (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)

Remove the restriction lock on the agenda, if it is currently restricted to a
file or subtree (see Agenda files).

Filter the current agenda view with respect to the category of the item at
point. Pressing < another time will remove this filter.

^ (org-agenda-filter-by-top-headline)

Filter the current agenda view and only display the siblings and the parent
headline of the one at point.

= (org-agenda-filter-by-regexp)

Filter the agenda view by a regular expression: only show agenda entries
matching the regular expression the user entered. When called with a prefix
argument, it will filter out entries matching the regexp. With two
universal prefix arguments, it will remove all the regexp filters, which can
be accumulated. You can add a filter preset through the option
org-agenda-category-filter-preset (see below.)

| (org-agenda-filter-remove-all)

Remove all filters in the current agenda view.

Remote editing

0--9

Digit argument.

C-_ (org-agenda-undo)

Undo a change due to a remote editing command. The change is undone
both in the agenda buffer and in the remote buffer.

t (org-agenda-todo)

Change the TODO state of the item, both in the agenda and in the
original org file.

C-S-right (org-agenda-todo-nextset)

C-S-left (org-agenda-todo-previousset)

Switch to the next/previous set of TODO keywords.

C-k (org-agenda-kill)

Delete the current agenda item along with the entire subtree belonging
to it in the original Org file. If the text to be deleted remotely
is longer than one line, the kill needs to be confirmed by the user. See
variable org-agenda-confirm-kill.

C-c C-w (org-agenda-refile)

Refile the entry at point.

C-c C-x C-aor shorta (org-agenda-archive-default-with-confirmation)

Archive the subtree corresponding to the entry at point using the default
archiving command set in org-archive-default-command. When using the
a key, confirmation will be required.

C-c C-x a (org-agenda-toggle-archive-tag)

Toggle the ARCHIVE tag for the current headline.

C-c C-x A (org-agenda-archive-to-archive-sibling)

Move the subtree corresponding to the current entry to its archive
sibling.

C-c C-x C-sor short$ (org-agenda-archive)

Archive the subtree corresponding to the current headline. This means the
entry will be moved to the configured archive location, most likely a
different file.

T (org-agenda-show-tags)

Show all tags associated with the current item. This is useful if you have
turned off org-agenda-show-inherited-tags, but still want to see all
tags of a headline occasionally.

: (org-agenda-set-tags)

Set tags for the current headline. If there is an active region in the
agenda, change a tag for all headings in the region.

,

Set the priority for the current item (org-agenda-priority).
Org mode prompts for the priority character. If you reply with SPC,
the priority cookie is removed from the entry.

P (org-agenda-show-priority)

Display weighted priority of current item.

+orS-up (org-agenda-priority-up)

Increase the priority of the current item. The priority is changed in
the original buffer, but the agenda is not resorted. Use the r
key for this.

-orS-down (org-agenda-priority-down)

Decrease the priority of the current item.

zorC-c C-z (org-agenda-add-note)

Add a note to the entry. This note will be recorded, and then filed to the
same location where state change notes are put. Depending on
org-log-into-drawer, this may be inside a drawer.

C-c C-a (org-attach)

Dispatcher for all command related to attachments.

C-c C-s (org-agenda-schedule)

Schedule this item. With prefix arg remove the scheduling timestamp

C-c C-d (org-agenda-deadline)

Set a deadline for this item. With prefix arg remove the deadline.

S-right (org-agenda-do-date-later)

Change the timestamp associated with the current line by one day into the
future. If the date is in the past, the first call to this command will move
it to today.
With a numeric prefix argument, change it by that many days. For example,
3 6 5 S-right will change it by a year. With a C-u prefix,
change the time by one hour. If you immediately repeat the command, it will
continue to change hours even without the prefix arg. With a double C-u
C-u prefix, do the same for changing minutes.
The stamp is changed in the original Org file, but the change is not directly
reflected in the agenda buffer. Use r or g to update the buffer.

S-left (org-agenda-do-date-earlier)

Change the timestamp associated with the current line by one day
into the past.

> (org-agenda-date-prompt)

Change the timestamp associated with the current line. The key > has
been chosen, because it is the same as S-. on my keyboard.

I (org-agenda-clock-in)

Start the clock on the current item. If a clock is running already, it
is stopped first.

O (org-agenda-clock-out)

Stop the previously started clock.

X (org-agenda-clock-cancel)

Cancel the currently running clock.

J (org-agenda-clock-goto)

Jump to the running clock in another window.

k (org-agenda-capture)

Like org-capture, but use the date at point as the default date for
the capture template. See org-capture-use-agenda-date to make this
the default behavior of org-capture.

Dragging agenda lines forward/backward

M-<up> (org-agenda-drag-line-backward)

Drag the line at point backward one line110. With a numeric prefix argument, drag backward by that
many lines.

M-<down> (org-agenda-drag-line-forward)

Drag the line at point forward one line. With a numeric prefix argument,
drag forward by that many lines.

Bulk remote editing selected entries

m (org-agenda-bulk-mark)

Mark the entry at point for bulk action. With numeric prefix argument, mark
that many successive entries.

* (org-agenda-bulk-mark-all)

Mark all visible agenda entries for bulk action.

u (org-agenda-bulk-unmark)

Unmark entry at point for bulk action.

U (org-agenda-bulk-remove-all-marks)

Unmark all marked entries for bulk action.

M-m (org-agenda-bulk-toggle)

Toggle mark of the entry at point for bulk action.

M-* (org-agenda-bulk-toggle-all)

Toggle marks of all visible entries for bulk action.

% (org-agenda-bulk-mark-regexp)

Mark entries matching a regular expression for bulk action.

B (org-agenda-bulk-action)

Bulk action: act on all marked entries in the agenda. This will prompt for
another key to select the action to be applied. The prefix arg to B
will be passed through to the s and d commands, to bulk-remove
these special timestamps. By default, marks are removed after the bulk. If
you want them to persist, set org-agenda-bulk-persistent-marks to
t or hit p at the prompt.

*

Toggle persistent marks.

$

Archive all selected entries.

A

Archive entries by moving them to their respective archive siblings.

t

Change TODO state. This prompts for a single TODO keyword and changes the
state of all selected entries, bypassing blocking and suppressing logging
notes (but not timestamps).

+

Add a tag to all selected entries.

-

Remove a tag from all selected entries.

s

Schedule all items to a new date. To shift existing schedule dates by a
fixed number of days, use something starting with double plus at the prompt,
for example ‘++8d’ or ‘++2w’.

d

Set deadline to a specific date.

r

Prompt for a single refile target and move all entries. The entries will no
longer be in the agenda; refresh (g) to bring them back.

S

Reschedule randomly into the coming N days. N will be prompted for. With
prefix arg (C-u B S), scatter only across weekdays.

f

Apply a function111 to marked entries. For
example, the function below sets the CATEGORY property of the entries to web.

When in the calendar, compute and show the Org mode agenda for the
date at the cursor.

i (org-agenda-diary-entry)

Insert a new entry into the diary, using the date at the cursor and (for
block entries) the date at the mark. This will add to the Emacs diary
file112, in a way similar to the i
command in the calendar. The diary file will pop up in another window, where
you can add the entry.

If you configure org-agenda-diary-file to point to an Org mode file,
Org will create entries (in Org mode syntax) in that file instead. Most
entries will be stored in a date-based outline tree that will later make it
easy to archive appointments from previous months/years. The tree will be
built under an entry with a DATE_TREE property, or else with years as
top-level entries. Emacs will prompt you for the entry text—if you specify
it, the entry will be created in org-agenda-diary-file without further
interaction. If you directly press RET at the prompt without typing
text, the target file will be shown in another window for you to finish the
entry there. See also the k r command.

M (org-agenda-phases-of-moon)

Show the phases of the moon for the three months around current date.

S (org-agenda-sunrise-sunset)

Show sunrise and sunset times. The geographical location must be set
with calendar variables, see the documentation for the Emacs calendar.

C (org-agenda-convert-date)

Convert the date at cursor into many other cultural and historic
calendars.

H (org-agenda-holidays)

Show holidays for three months around the cursor date.

M-x org-icalendar-combine-agenda-files RET

Export a single iCalendar file containing entries from all agenda files.
This is a globally available command, and also available in the agenda menu.

Exporting to a file

C-x C-w (org-agenda-write)

Write the agenda view to a file. Depending on the extension of the selected
file name, the view will be exported as HTML (.html or .htm),
Postscript (.ps), PDF (.pdf), Org (.org) and plain text
(any other extension). When exporting to Org, only the body of original
headlines are exported, not subtrees or inherited tags. When called with a
C-u prefix argument, immediately open the newly created file. Use the
variable org-agenda-exporter-settings to set options for
ps-print and for htmlize to be used during export.

Quit and Exit

q (org-agenda-quit)

Quit agenda, remove the agenda buffer.

x (org-agenda-exit)

Exit agenda, remove the agenda buffer and all buffers loaded by Emacs
for the compilation of the agenda. Buffers created by the user to
visit Org files will not be removed.

10.6 Custom agenda views

Custom agenda commands serve two purposes: to store and quickly access
frequently used TODO and tags searches, and to create special composite
agenda buffers. Custom agenda commands will be accessible through the
dispatcher (see Agenda dispatcher), just like the default commands.

10.6.1 Storing searches

The first application of custom searches is the definition of keyboard
shortcuts for frequently used searches, either creating an agenda
buffer, or a sparse tree (the latter covering of course only the current
buffer).

Custom commands are configured in the variable
org-agenda-custom-commands. You can customize this variable, for
example by pressing C-c a C. You can also directly set it with Emacs
Lisp in .emacs. The following example contains all valid agenda
views:

The initial string in each entry defines the keys you have to press
after the dispatcher command C-c a in order to access the command.
Usually this will be just a single character, but if you have many
similar commands, you can also define two-letter combinations where the
first character is the same in several combinations and serves as a
prefix key113. The second
parameter is the search type, followed by the string or regular
expression to be used for the matching. The example above will
therefore define:

10.6.2 Block agenda

Another possibility is the construction of agenda views that comprise
the results of several commands, each of which creates a block in
the agenda buffer. The available commands include agenda for the
daily or weekly agenda (as created with C-c a a), alltodo
for the global TODO list (as constructed with C-c a t), and the
matching commands discussed above: todo, tags, and
tags-todo. Here are two examples:

This will define C-c a h to create a multi-block view for stuff
you need to attend to at home. The resulting agenda buffer will contain
your agenda for the current week, all TODO items that carry the tag
‘home’, and also all lines tagged with ‘garden’. Finally the
command C-c a o provides a similar view for office tasks.

10.6.3 Setting options for custom commands

Org mode contains a number of variables regulating agenda construction
and display. The global variables define the behavior for all agenda
commands, including the custom commands. However, if you want to change
some settings just for a single custom view, you can do so. Setting
options requires inserting a list of variable names and values at the
right spot in org-agenda-custom-commands. For example:

Now the C-c a w command will sort the collected entries only by
priority, and the prefix format is modified to just say ‘ Mixed: ’
instead of giving the category of the entry. The sparse tags tree of
C-c a U will now turn out ultra-compact, because neither the
headline hierarchy above the match, nor the headline following the match
will be shown. The command C-c a N will do a text search limited
to only a single file.

For command sets creating a block agenda,
org-agenda-custom-commands has two separate spots for setting
options. You can add options that should be valid for just a single
command in the set, and options that should be valid for all commands in
the set. The former are just added to the command entry; the latter
must come after the list of command entries. Going back to the block
agenda example (see Block agenda), let’s change the sorting strategy
for the C-c a h commands to priority-down, but let’s sort
the results for GARDEN tags query in the opposite order,
priority-up. This would look like this:

As you see, the values and parentheses setting is a little complex.
When in doubt, use the customize interface to set this variable—it
fully supports its structure. Just one caveat: when setting options in
this interface, the values are just Lisp expressions. So if the
value is a string, you need to add the double-quotes around the value
yourself.

To control whether an agenda command should be accessible from a specific
context, you can customize org-agenda-custom-commands-contexts. Let’s
say for example that you have an agenda commands "o" displaying a view
that you only need when reading emails. Then you would configure this option
like this:

10.7 Exporting Agenda Views

If you are away from your computer, it can be very useful to have a printed
version of some agenda views to carry around. Org mode can export custom
agenda views as plain text, HTML115, Postscript, PDF116, and iCalendar files. If
you want to do this only occasionally, use the command

C-x C-w (org-agenda-write)

Write the agenda view to a file. Depending on the extension of the selected
file name, the view will be exported as HTML (extension .html or
.htm), Postscript (extension .ps), iCalendar (extension
.ics), or plain text (any other extension). Use the variable
org-agenda-exporter-settings to set options for ps-print and
for htmlize to be used during export, for example

If you need to export certain agenda views frequently, you can associate
any custom agenda command with a list of output file names
117. Here is an example
that first defines custom commands for the agenda and the global
TODO list, together with a number of files to which to export them.
Then we define two block agenda commands and specify file names for them
as well. File names can be relative to the current working directory,
or absolute.

The extension of the file name determines the type of export. If it is
.html, Org mode will use the htmlize.el package to convert
the buffer to HTML and save it to this file name. If the extension is
.ps, ps-print-buffer-with-faces is used to produce
Postscript output. If the extension is .ics, iCalendar export is
run export over all files that were used to construct the agenda, and
limit the export to entries listed in the agenda. Any other
extension produces a plain ASCII file.

The export files are not created when you use one of those
commands interactively because this might use too much overhead.
Instead, there is a special command to produce all specified
files in one step:

C-c a e (org-store-agenda-views)

Export all agenda views that have export file names associated with
them.

You can use the options section of the custom agenda commands to also
set options for the export commands. For example:

This command sets two options for the Postscript exporter, to make it
print in two columns in landscape format—the resulting page can be cut
in two and then used in a paper agenda. The remaining settings modify
the agenda prefix to omit category and scheduling information, and
instead include a checkbox to check off items. We also remove the tags
to make the lines compact, and we don’t want to use colors for the
black-and-white printer. Settings specified in
org-agenda-exporter-settings will also apply, but the settings
in org-agenda-custom-commands take precedence.

10.8 Using column view in the agenda

Column view (see Column view) is normally used to view and edit
properties embedded in the hierarchical structure of an Org file. It can be
quite useful to use column view also from the agenda, where entries are
collected by certain criteria.

C-c C-x C-c (org-agenda-columns)

Turn on column view in the agenda.

To understand how to use this properly, it is important to realize that the
entries in the agenda are no longer in their proper outline environment.
This causes the following issues:

Org needs to make a decision which COLUMNS format to use. Since the
entries in the agenda are collected from different files, and different files
may have different COLUMNS formats, this is a non-trivial problem.
Org first checks if the variable org-agenda-overriding-columns-format is
currently set, and if so, takes the format from there. Otherwise it takes
the format associated with the first item in the agenda, or, if that item
does not have a specific format (defined in a property, or in its file), it
uses org-columns-default-format.

If any of the columns has a summary type defined (see Column attributes),
turning on column view in the agenda will visit all relevant agenda files and
make sure that the computations of this property are up to date. This is
also true for the special CLOCKSUM property. Org will then sum the
values displayed in the agenda. In the daily/weekly agenda, the sums will
cover a single day; in all other views they cover the entire block. It is
vital to realize that the agenda may show the same entry twice (for
example as scheduled and as a deadline), and it may show two entries from the
same hierarchy (for example a parent and its child). In these
cases, the summation in the agenda will lead to incorrect results because
some values will count double.

When the column view in the agenda shows the CLOCKSUM, that is always
the entire clocked time for this item. So even in the daily/weekly agenda,
the clocksum listed in column view may originate from times outside the
current view. This has the advantage that you can compare these values with
a column listing the planned total effort for a task—one of the major
applications for column view in the agenda. If you want information about
clocked time in the displayed period use clock table mode (press R in
the agenda).

When the column view in the agenda shows the CLOCKSUM_T, that is
always today’s clocked time for this item. So even in the weekly agenda,
the clocksum listed in column view only originates from today. This lets
you compare the time you spent on a task for today, with the time already
spent (via CLOCKSUM) and with the planned total effort for it.

11 Markup for rich export

When exporting Org mode documents, the exporter tries to reflect the
structure of the document as accurately as possible in the back-end. Since
export targets like HTML, LaTeX allow much richer formatting, Org mode has
rules on how to prepare text for rich export. This section summarizes the
markup rules used in an Org mode buffer.

Headings and sections

Headings and sections

The outline structure of the document as described in Document Structure, forms the basis for defining sections of the exported document.
However, since the outline structure is also used for (for example) lists of
tasks, only the first three outline levels will be used as headings. Deeper
levels will become itemized lists. You can change the location of this
switch globally by setting the variable org-export-headline-levels, or on a
per-file basis with a line

Table of contents

Table of contents

The table of contents is normally inserted directly before the first headline
of the file. The depth of the table is by default the same as the number of
headline levels, but you can choose a smaller number, or turn off the table
of contents entirely, by configuring the variable org-export-with-toc,
or on a per-file basis with a line like

If you would like to move the table of contents to a different location, you
should turn off the default table using org-export-with-toc or
#+OPTIONS and insert #+TOC: headlines N at the desired
location(s).

The headline’s title usually determines its corresponding entry in a table of
contents. However, it is possible to specify an alternative title by
setting ALT_TITLE property accordingly. It will then be used when
building the table.

When quoting a passage from another document, it is customary to format this
as a paragraph that is indented on both the left and the right margin. You
can include quotations in Org mode documents like this:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not any simpler -- Albert Einstein
#+END_QUOTE

If you would like to center some text, do it like this:

#+BEGIN_CENTER
Everything should be made as simple as possible, \\
but not any simpler
#+END_CENTER

Emphasis and monospace

Emphasis and monospace

You can make words *bold*, /italic/, _underlined_, =verbatim=
and ~code~, and, if you must, ‘+strike-through+’. Text
in the code and verbatim string is not processed for Org mode specific
syntax, it is exported verbatim.

To turn off fontification for marked up text, you can set
org-fontify-emphasized-text to nil. To narrow down the list of
available markup syntax, you can customize org-emphasis-alist. To fine
tune what characters are allowed before and after the markup characters, you
can tweak org-emphasis-regexp-components. Beware that changing one of
the above variables will no take effect until you reload Org, for which you
may need to restart Emacs.

Horizontal rules

Horizontal rules

Comment lines

Comment lines

Lines starting with zero or more whitespace characters followed by one
‘#’ and a whitespace are treated as comments and will never be exported.
Also entire subtrees starting with the word ‘COMMENT’ will never be
exported. Finally, regions surrounded by ‘#+BEGIN_COMMENT’
... ‘#+END_COMMENT’ will not be exported.

11.2 Images and Tables

Both the native Org mode tables (see Tables) and tables formatted with
the table.el package will be exported properly. For Org mode tables,
the lines before the first horizontal separator line will become table header
lines. You can use the following lines somewhere before the table to assign
a caption and a label for cross references, and in the text you can refer to
the object with [[tab:basic-data]] (see Internal links):

#+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next table (or link)
#+NAME: tab:basic-data
| ... | ...|
|-----|----|

Optionally, the caption can take the form:

#+CAPTION[Caption for list of tables]: Caption for table.

Some back-ends allow you to directly include images into the exported
document. Org does this, if a link to an image files does not have
a description part, for example [[./img/a.jpg]]. If you wish to
define a caption for the image and maybe a label for internal cross
references, make sure that the link is on a line by itself and precede it
with #+CAPTION and #+NAME as follows:

#+CAPTION: This is the caption for the next figure link (or table)
#+NAME: fig:SED-HR4049
[[./img/a.jpg]]

Even though images and tables are prominent examples of captioned structures,
the same caption mechanism can apply to many others (e.g., LaTeX
equations, source code blocks). Depending on the export back-end, those may
or may not be handled.

11.3 Literal examples

You can include literal examples that should not be subjected to
markup. Such examples will be typeset in monospace, so this is well suited
for source code and similar examples.

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
Some example from a text file.
#+END_EXAMPLE

Note that such blocks may be indented in order to align nicely with
indented text and in particular with plain list structure (see Plain lists). For simplicity when using small examples, you can also start the
example lines with a colon followed by a space. There may also be additional
whitespace before the colon:

Here is an example
: Some example from a text file.

If the example is source code from a programming language, or any other text
that can be marked up by font-lock in Emacs, you can ask for the example to
look like the fontified Emacs buffer119. This is done
with the ‘src’ block, where you also need to specify the name of the
major mode that should be used to fontify the example120, see Easy Templates for shortcuts to easily insert code
blocks.

Both in example and in src snippets, you can add a -n
switch to the end of the BEGIN line, to get the lines of the example
numbered. If you use a +n switch, the numbering from the previous
numbered snippet will be continued in the current one. In literal examples,
Org will interpret strings like ‘(ref:name)’ as labels, and use them as
targets for special hyperlinks like [[(name)]] (i.e., the reference name
enclosed in single parenthesis). In HTML, hovering the mouse over such a
link will remote-highlight the corresponding code line, which is kind of
cool.

You can also add a -r switch which removes the labels from the
source code121. With the -n
switch, links to these references will be labeled by the line numbers from
the code listing, otherwise links will use the labels with no parentheses.
Here is an example:

If the syntax for the label format conflicts with the language syntax, use a
-l switch to change the format, for example ‘#+BEGIN_SRC pascal
-n -r -l "((%s))"’. See also the variable org-coderef-label-format.

Because the #+BEGIN_... and #+END_... patterns need to be added
so often, shortcuts are provided using the Easy Templates facility
(see Easy Templates).

C-c '

Edit the source code example at point in its native mode. This works by
switching to a temporary buffer with the source code. You need to exit by
pressing C-c ' again122.
The edited version will then replace the old version in the Org buffer.
Fixed-width regions (where each line starts with a colon followed by a space)
will be edited using artist-mode123
to allow creating ASCII drawings easily. Using this command in an empty line
will create a new fixed-width region.

C-c l

Calling org-store-link while editing a source code example in a
temporary buffer created with C-c ' will prompt for a label. Make sure
that it is unique in the current buffer, and insert it with the proper
formatting like ‘(ref:label)’ at the end of the current line. Then the
label is stored as a link ‘(label)’, for retrieval with C-c C-l.

11.4 Include files

During export, you can include the content of another file. For example, to
include your .emacs file, you could use:

#+INCLUDE: "~/.emacs" src emacs-lisp

The optional second and third parameter are the markup (i.e., ‘example’
or ‘src’), and, if the markup is ‘src’, the language for formatting
the contents. The markup is optional; if it is not given, the text will be
assumed to be in Org mode format and will be processed normally.

Contents of the included file will belong to the same structure (headline,
item) containing the INCLUDE keyword. In particular, headlines within
the file will become children of the current section. That behavior can be
changed by providing an additional keyword parameter, :minlevel. In
that case, all headlines in the included file will be shifted so the one with
the lowest level reaches that specified level. For example, to make a file
become a sibling of the current top-level headline, use

#+INCLUDE: "~/my-book/chapter2.org" :minlevel 1

You can also include a portion of a file by specifying a lines range using
the :lines parameter. The line at the upper end of the range will not
be included. The start and/or the end of the range may be omitted to use the
obvious defaults.

11.5 Index entries

You can specify entries that will be used for generating an index during
publishing. This is done by lines starting with #+INDEX. An entry
the contains an exclamation mark will create a sub item. See Generating an index for more information.

11.6 Macro replacement

You can define text snippets with

#+MACRO: name replacement text $1, $2 are arguments

which can be referenced in
paragraphs, verse blocks, table cells and some keywords with
{{{name(arg1,arg2)}}}124. In addition to defined macros,
{{{title}}}, {{{author}}}, etc., will reference
information set by the #+TITLE:, #+AUTHOR:, and similar lines.
Also, {{{time(FORMAT)}}} and
{{{modification-time(FORMAT)}}} refer to current date time
and to the modification time of the file being exported, respectively.
FORMAT should be a format string understood by
format-time-string.

11.7 Embedded LaTeX

Plain ASCII is normally sufficient for almost all note taking. Exceptions
include scientific notes, which often require mathematical symbols and the
occasional formula. LaTeX125 is widely used to typeset scientific documents. Org mode
supports embedding LaTeX code into its files, because many academics are
used to writing and reading LaTeX source code, and because it can be
readily processed to produce pretty output for a number of export back-ends.

11.7.1 Special symbols

You can use LaTeX-like syntax to insert special symbols like ‘\alpha’
to indicate the Greek letter, or ‘\to’ to indicate an arrow. Completion
for these symbols is available, just type ‘\’ and maybe a few letters,
and press M-TAB to see possible completions. Unlike LaTeX
code, Org mode allows these symbols to be present without surrounding math
delimiters, for example:

Angles are written as Greek letters \alpha, \beta and \gamma.

During export, these symbols will be transformed into the native format of
the exporter back-end. Strings like \alpha will be exported as
&alpha; in the HTML output, and as $\alpha$ in the LaTeX
output. Similarly, \nbsp will become &nbsp; in HTML and
~ in LaTeX. If you need such a symbol inside a word, terminate it
like this: ‘\Aacute{}stor’.

A large number of entities is provided, with names taken from both HTML and
LaTeX; see the variable org-entities for the complete list.
‘\-’ is treated as a shy hyphen, and ‘--’, ‘---’, and
‘...’ are all converted into special commands creating hyphens of
different lengths or a compact set of dots.

If you would like to see entities displayed as UTF-8 characters, use the
following command126:

C-c C-x \

Toggle display of entities as UTF-8 characters. This does not change the
buffer content which remains plain ASCII, but it overlays the UTF-8 character
for display purposes only.

11.7.2 Subscripts and superscripts

Just like in LaTeX, ‘^’ and ‘_’ are used to indicate super- and
subscripts. Again, these can be used without embedding them in math-mode
delimiters. To increase the readability of ASCII text, it is not necessary
(but OK) to surround multi-character sub- and superscripts with curly braces.
For example

The mass of the sun is M_sun = 1.989 x 10^30 kg. The radius of
the sun is R_{sun} = 6.96 x 10^8 m.

If you write a text where the underscore is often used in a different
context, Org’s convention to always interpret these as subscripts can get in
your way. Configure the variable org-use-sub-superscripts to change
this convention. For example, when setting this variable to {},
‘a_b’ will not be interpreted as a subscript, but ‘a_{b}’ will.

C-c C-x \

In addition to showing entities as UTF-8 characters, this command will also
format sub- and superscripts in a WYSIWYM way.

11.7.3 LaTeX fragments

Going beyond symbols and sub- and superscripts, a full formula language is
needed. Org mode can contain LaTeX math fragments, and it supports ways
to process these for several export back-ends. When exporting to LaTeX,
the code is obviously left as it is. When exporting to HTML, Org invokes the
MathJax library (see Math formatting in HTML export) to process and display the math127.
Finally, it can also process the mathematical expressions into
images128 that can be
displayed in a browser.

LaTeX fragments don’t need any special marking at all. The following
snippets will be identified as LaTeX source code:

Environments of any kind129. The only requirement is that the
\begin and \end statements appear on a new line, at the
beginning of the line or after whitespaces only.

Text within the usual LaTeX math delimiters. To avoid conflicts with
currency specifications, single ‘$’ characters are only recognized as
math delimiters if the enclosed text contains at most two line breaks, is
directly attached to the ‘$’ characters with no whitespace in between,
and if the closing ‘$’ is followed by whitespace, punctuation or a dash.
For the other delimiters, there is no such restriction, so when in doubt, use
‘\(...\)’ as inline math delimiters.

For example:

\begin{equation}
x=\sqrt{b}
\end{equation}
If $a^2=b$ and \( b=2 \), then the solution must be
either $$ a=+\sqrt{2} $$ or \[ a=-\sqrt{2} \].

LaTeX processing can be configured with the variable
org-export-with-latex. The default setting is t which means
MathJax for HTML, and no processing for ASCII and LaTeX back-ends.
You can also set this variable on a per-file basis using one of these
lines:

#+OPTIONS: tex:t Do the right thing automatically (MathJax)
#+OPTIONS: tex:nil Do not process LaTeX fragments at all
#+OPTIONS: tex:verbatim Verbatim export, for jsMath or so

11.7.4 Previewing LaTeX fragments

If you have dvipng or imagemagick installed130, LaTeX
fragments can be processed to produce preview images of the typeset
expressions:

C-c C-x C-l

Produce a preview image of the LaTeX fragment at point and overlay it
over the source code. If there is no fragment at point, process all
fragments in the current entry (between two headlines). When called
with a prefix argument, process the entire subtree. When called with
two prefix arguments, or when the cursor is before the first headline,
process the entire buffer.

C-c C-c

Remove the overlay preview images.

You can customize the variable org-format-latex-options to influence
some aspects of the preview. In particular, the :scale (and for HTML
export, :html-scale) property can be used to adjust the size of the
preview images.

11.7.5 Using CDLaTeX to enter math

CDLaTeX mode is a minor mode that is normally used in combination with a
major LaTeX mode like AUCTeX in order to speed-up insertion of
environments and math templates. Inside Org mode, you can make use of
some of the features of CDLaTeX mode. You need to install
cdlatex.el and texmathp.el (the latter comes also with
AUCTeX) from http://www.astro.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools/cdlatex.
Don’t use CDLaTeX mode itself under Org mode, but use the light
version org-cdlatex-mode that comes as part of Org mode. Turn it
on for the current buffer with M-x org-cdlatex-mode RET, or for all
Org files with

(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'turn-on-org-cdlatex)

When this mode is enabled, the following features are present (for more
details see the documentation of CDLaTeX mode):

Environment templates can be inserted with C-c {.

The TAB key will do template expansion if the cursor is inside a
LaTeX fragment131. For example, TAB will
expand fr to \frac{}{} and position the cursor
correctly inside the first brace. Another TAB will get you into
the second brace. Even outside fragments, TAB will expand
environment abbreviations at the beginning of a line. For example, if
you write ‘equ’ at the beginning of a line and press TAB,
this abbreviation will be expanded to an equation environment.
To get a list of all abbreviations, type M-x cdlatex-command-help RET.

Pressing _ and ^ inside a LaTeX fragment will insert these
characters together with a pair of braces. If you use TAB to move
out of the braces, and if the braces surround only a single character or
macro, they are removed again (depending on the variable
cdlatex-simplify-sub-super-scripts).

Pressing the backquote ` followed by a character inserts math
macros, also outside LaTeX fragments. If you wait more than 1.5 seconds
after the backquote, a help window will pop up.

Pressing the single-quote ' followed by another character modifies
the symbol before point with an accent or a font. If you wait more than
1.5 seconds after the single-quote, a help window will pop up. Character
modification will work only inside LaTeX fragments; outside the quote
is normal.

For example, ‘#+BEGIN_ABSTRACT’ and ‘#+BEGIN_VIDEO’ are special
blocks. The first one is useful when exporting to LaTeX, the second one
when exporting to HTML5.

Each export back-end decides if they should be exported, and how. When the
block is ignored, its contents are still exported, as if the opening and
closing block lines were not there. For example, when exporting a
‘#+BEGIN_TEST’ block, HTML back-end wraps its contents within a
‘<div name="test">’ tag.

12 Exporting

The Org mode export facilities can be used to export Org documents or parts
of Org documents to a variety of other formats. In addition, these
facilities can be used with orgtbl-mode and/or orgstruct-mode
in foreign buffers so you can author tables and lists in Org syntax and
convert them in place to the target language.

ASCII export produces a readable and simple version of an Org file for
printing and sharing notes. HTML export allows you to easily publish notes
on the web, or to build full-fledged websites. LaTeX export lets you use
Org mode and its structured editing functions to create arbitrarily complex
LaTeX files for any kind of document. OpenDocument Text (ODT) export
allows seamless collaboration across organizational boundaries. Markdown
export lets you seamlessly collaborate with other developers. Finally, iCal
export can extract entries with deadlines or appointments to produce a file
in the iCalendar format.

12.1 The Export Dispatcher

The main entry point for export related tasks is the dispatcher, a
hierarchical menu from which it is possible to select an export format and
toggle export options132 from which it is possible to select an export format and to toggle
export options.

C-c C-e (org-export-dispatch)

Dispatch for export and publishing commands. When called with a C-u
prefix argument, repeat the last export command on the current buffer while
preserving toggled options. If the current buffer hasn’t changed and subtree
export was activated, the command will affect that same subtree.

Normally the entire buffer is exported, but if there is an active region
only that part of the buffer will be exported.

Several export options (see Export settings) can be toggled from the
export dispatcher with the following key combinations:

While exporting asynchronously, the output is not displayed, but stored in
a place called “the export stack”. This stack can be displayed by calling
the dispatcher with a double C-u prefix argument, or with & key
from the dispatcher menu.

To make this behavior the default, customize the variable
org-export-in-background.

C-b

Toggle body-only export. Its effect depends on the back-end used.
Typically, if the back-end has a header section (like <head>...</head>
in the HTML back-end), a body-only export will not include this header.

C-s

Toggle subtree export. The top heading becomes the document title.

You can change the default state of this option by setting
org-export-initial-scope.

C-v

Toggle visible-only export. Only export the text that is currently
visible, i.e. not hidden by outline visibility in the buffer.

With the exception of asynchronous export, a successful export process writes
its output to the kill-ring. You can configure this behavior by altering the
option org-export-copy-to-kill-ring.

12.3 Export settings

Export options can be set: globally with variables; for an individual file by
making variables buffer-local with in-buffer settings (see In-buffer settings), by setting individual keywords, or by specifying them in a
compact form with the #+OPTIONS keyword; or for a tree by setting
properties (see Properties and Columns). Options set at a specific level
override options set at a more general level.

In-buffer settings may appear anywhere in the file, either directly or
indirectly through a file included using ‘#+SETUPFILE: filename’ syntax.
Option keyword sets tailored to a particular back-end can be inserted from
the export dispatcher (see The Export Dispatcher) using the Insert
template command by pressing #. To insert keywords individually,
a good way to make sure the keyword is correct is to type #+ and then
to use M-<TAB> for completion.

The export keywords available for every back-end, and their equivalent global
variables, include:

The document description. Back-ends handle it as they see fit (e.g., for the
XHTML meta tag), if at all. You can use several such keywords for long
descriptions.

‘EMAIL’

The email address (user-mail-address).

‘KEYWORDS’

The keywords defining the contents of the document. Back-ends handle it as
they see fit (e.g., for the XHTML meta tag), if at all. You can use several
such keywords if the list is long.

‘LANGUAGE’

The language used for translating some strings
(org-export-default-language). E.g., ‘#+LANGUAGE: fr’ will tell
Org to translate File (english) into Fichier (french) in the
clocktable.

‘SELECT_TAGS’

The tags that select a tree for export (org-export-select-tags). The
default value is :export:. Within a subtree tagged with
:export:, you can still exclude entries with :noexport: (see
below). When headlines are selectively exported with :export:
anywhere in a file, text before the first headline is ignored.

‘EXCLUDE_TAGS’

The tags that exclude a tree from export (org-export-exclude-tags).
The default value is :noexport:. Entries with the :noexport:
tag will be unconditionally excluded from the export, even if they have an
:export: tag.

‘TITLE’

The title to be shown (otherwise derived from buffer’s name). You can use
several such keywords for long titles.

The #+OPTIONS keyword is a compact134 form that
recognizes the following arguments:

':

Toggle smart quotes (org-export-with-smart-quotes).

*:

Toggle emphasized text (org-export-with-emphasize).

-:

Toggle conversion of special strings
(org-export-with-special-strings).

When exporting only a subtree, each of the previous keywords135 can be overridden locally by special node
properties. These begin with ‘EXPORT_’, followed by the name of the
keyword they supplant. For example, ‘DATE’ and ‘OPTIONS’ keywords
become, respectively, ‘EXPORT_DATE’ and ‘EXPORT_OPTIONS’
properties.

If org-export-allow-bind-keywords is non-nil, Emacs variables
can become buffer-local during export by using the BIND keyword. Its syntax
is ‘#+BIND: variable value’. This is particularly useful for in-buffer
settings that cannot be changed using specific keywords.

The name of the output file to be generated is taken from the file associated
to the buffer, when possible, or asked to you otherwise. For subtree export,
you can also set ‘EXPORT_FILE_NAME’ property. In all cases, only the
base name of the file is retained, and a back-end specific extension is
added.

12.4 ASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 export

ASCII export produces a simple and very readable version of an Org mode
file, containing only plain ASCII. Latin-1 and UTF-8 export augment the file
with special characters and symbols available in these encodings.

Links are exported in a footnote-like style, with the descriptive part in the
text and the link in a note before the next heading. See the variable
org-ascii-links-to-notes for details and other options.

ASCII export commands

C-c C-e t a/l/u (org-ascii-export-to-ascii)

Export as an ASCII file. For an Org file, myfile.org, the ASCII file
will be myfile.txt. The file will be overwritten without warning.
When the original file is myfile.txt, the resulting file becomes
myfile.txt.txt in order to prevent data loss.

C-c C-e t A/L/U (org-ascii-export-as-ascii)

Export to a temporary buffer. Do not create a file.

Header and sectioning structure

In the exported version, the first three outline levels become headlines,
defining a general document structure. Additional levels are exported as
lists. The transition can also occur at a different level (see Export settings).

Quoting ASCII text

You can insert text that will only appear when using ASCII back-end
with the following constructs:

Text @@ascii:and additional text@@ within a paragraph.
#+ASCII: Some text
#+BEGIN_ASCII
All lines in this block will appear only when using this back-end.
#+END_ASCII

ASCII specific attributes

ASCII back-end only understands one attribute, :width, which
specifies the length, in characters, of a given horizontal rule. It must be
specified using an ATTR_ASCII line, directly preceding the rule.

12.5 Beamer export

The LaTeX class Beamer allows production of high quality
presentations using LaTeX and pdf processing. Org mode has special
support for turning an Org mode file or tree into a Beamer presentation.

Beamer export commands

C-c C-e l b (org-beamer-export-to-latex)

Export as a LaTeX file. For an Org file myfile.org, the LaTeX
file will be myfile.tex. The file will be overwritten without
warning.

C-c C-e l B (org-beamer-export-as-latex)

Export to a temporary buffer. Do not create a file.

C-c C-e l P (org-beamer-export-to-pdf)

Export as LaTeX and then process to PDF.

C-c C-e l O

Export as LaTeX and then process to PDF, then open the resulting PDF file.

Sectioning, Frames and Blocks

Any tree with not-too-deep level nesting should in principle be exportable as
a Beamer presentation. Headlines fall into three categories: sectioning
elements, frames and blocks.

-
Headlines become frames when their level is equal to
org-beamer-frame-level or H value in an OPTIONS line
(see Export settings).

Though, if a headline in the current tree has a BEAMER_ENV property
set to either to frame or fullframe, its level overrides the
variable. A fullframe is a frame with an empty (ignored) title.

-
All frame’s children become block environments. Special block types
can be enforced by setting headline’s BEAMER_ENV property136 to an appropriate value (see org-beamer-environments-default for
supported values and org-beamer-environments-extra for adding more).

-
As a special case, if the BEAMER_ENV property is set to either
appendix, note, noteNH or againframe, the
headline will become, respectively, an appendix, a note (within frame or
between frame, depending on its level), a note with its title ignored or an
\againframe command. In the latter case, a BEAMER_REF property
is mandatory in order to refer to the frame being resumed, and contents are
ignored.

Also, a headline with an ignoreheading environment will have its
contents only inserted in the output. This special value is useful to have
data between frames, or to properly close a column environment.

Headlines also support BEAMER_ACT and BEAMER_OPT properties.
The former is translated as an overlay/action specification, or a default
overlay specification when enclosed within square brackets. The latter
specifies options137 for the
current frame or block. The export back-end will automatically wrap
properties within angular or square brackets when appropriate.

Moreover, headlines handle the BEAMER_COL property. Its value should
be a decimal number representing the width of the column as a fraction of the
total text width. If the headline has no specific environment, its title
will be ignored and its contents will fill the column created. Otherwise,
the block will fill the whole column and the title will be preserved. Two
contiguous headlines with a non-nilBEAMER_COL value share the same
columns LaTeX environment. It will end before the next headline
without such a property. This environment is generated automatically.
Although, it can also be explicitly created, with a special columns
value for BEAMER_ENV property (if it needs to be set up with some
specific options, for example).

Beamer specific syntax

Beamer back-end is an extension of LaTeX back-end. As such, all LaTeX
specific syntax (e.g., ‘#+LATEX:’ or ‘#+ATTR_LATEX:’) is
recognized. See LaTeX and PDF export for more information.

Beamer export introduces a number of keywords to insert code in the
document’s header. Four control appearance of the presentation:
#+BEAMER_THEME, #+BEAMER_COLOR_THEME,
#+BEAMER_FONT_THEME, #+BEAMER_INNER_THEME and
#+BEAMER_OUTER_THEME. All of them accept optional arguments
within square brackets. The last one, #+BEAMER_HEADER, is more
generic and allows you to append any line of code in the header.

#+BEAMER_THEME: Rochester [height=20pt]
#+BEAMER_COLOR_THEME: spruce

Table of contents generated from toc:tOPTION keyword are
wrapped within a frame environment. Those generated from a TOC
keyword (see Table of contents) are not. In that case, it is also
possible to specify options, enclosed within square brackets.

#+TOC: headlines [currentsection]

Beamer specific code can be inserted with the following constructs:

#+BEAMER: \pause
#+BEGIN_BEAMER
All lines in this block will appear only when using this back-end.
#+END_BEAMER
Text @@beamer:some code@@ within a paragraph.

In particular, this last example can be used to add overlay specifications to
objects whose type is among bold, item, link,
radio-target and target, when the value is enclosed within
angular brackets and put at the beginning the object.

A *@@beamer:<2->@@useful* feature

Eventually, every plain list has support for :environment,
:overlay and :options attributes through
ATTR_BEAMER affiliated keyword. The first one allows the use
of a different environment, the second sets overlay specifications and
the last one inserts optional arguments in current list environment.

#+ATTR_BEAMER: :overlay +-
- item 1
- item 2

Editing support

You can turn on a special minor mode org-beamer-mode for faster
editing with:

#+STARTUP: beamer

C-c C-b (org-beamer-select-environment)

In org-beamer-mode, this key offers fast selection of a Beamer
environment or the BEAMER_COL property.

Also, a template for useful in-buffer settings or properties can be inserted
into the buffer with M-x org-beamer-insert-options-template. Among
other things, this will install a column view format which is very handy for
editing special properties used by Beamer.

An example

Here is a simple example Org document that is intended for Beamer export.

12.6.1 HTML export commands

C-c C-e h h (org-html-export-to-html)

Export as an HTML file. For an Org file myfile.org,
the HTML file will be myfile.html. The file will be overwritten
without warning.
C-c C-e h o
Export as an HTML file and immediately open it with a browser.

12.6.2 HTML doctypes

Org can export to various (X)HTML flavors.

Setting the variable org-html-doctype allows you to export to different
(X)HTML variants. The exported HTML will be adjusted according to the syntax
requirements of that variant. You can either set this variable to a doctype
string directly, in which case the exporter will try to adjust the syntax
automatically, or you can use a ready-made doctype. The ready-made options
are:

“html4-strict”

“html4-transitional”

“html4-frameset”

“xhtml-strict”

“xhtml-transitional”

“xhtml-frameset”

“xhtml-11”

“html5”

“xhtml5”

See the variable org-html-doctype-alist for details. The default is
“xhtml-strict”.

Fancy HTML5 export

HTML5 introduces several new element types. By default, Org will not make
use of these element types, but you can set org-html-html5-fancy to
t (or set html5-fancy item in an OPTIONS line), to
enable a few new block-level elements. These are created using arbitrary
#+BEGIN and #+END blocks. For instance:

12.6.3 HTML preamble and postamble

The default value for org-html-preamble is t, which means
that the preamble is inserted depending on the relevant format string in
org-html-preamble-format.

Setting org-html-preamble to a string will override the default format
string. If you set it to a function, it will insert the output of the
function, which must be a string. Setting to nil will not insert any
preamble.

The default value for org-html-postamble is 'auto, which means
that the HTML exporter will look for information about the author, the email,
the creator and the date, and build the postamble from these values. Setting
org-html-postamble to t will insert the postamble from the
relevant format string found in org-html-postamble-format. Setting it
to nil will not insert any postamble.

12.6.4 Quoting HTML tags

Plain ‘<’ and ‘>’ are always transformed to ‘&lt;’ and
‘&gt;’ in HTML export. If you want to include raw HTML code, which
should only appear in HTML export, mark it with ‘@@html:’ as in
‘@@html:<b>@@bold text@@html:</b>@@’. For more extensive HTML
that should be copied verbatim to the exported file use either

#+HTML: Literal HTML code for export

or

#+BEGIN_HTML
All lines between these markers are exported literally
#+END_HTML

12.6.5 Links in HTML export

Internal links (see Internal links) will continue to work in HTML. This
includes automatic links created by radio targets (see Radio targets). Links to external files will still work if the target file is on
the same relative path as the published Org file. Links to other
.org files will be translated into HTML links under the assumption
that an HTML version also exists of the linked file, at the same relative
path. ‘id:’ links can then be used to jump to specific entries across
files. For information related to linking files while publishing them to a
publishing directory see Publishing links.

If you want to specify attributes for links, you can do so using a special
#+ATTR_HTML line to define attributes that will be added to the
<a> or <img> tags. Here is an example that sets title
and style attributes for a link:

12.6.6 Tables

Org mode tables are exported to HTML using the table attributes defined in
org-html-table-default-attributes. The default setting makes tables
without cell borders and frame. If you would like to change this for
individual tables, place something like the following before the table:

#+CAPTION: This is a table with lines around and between cells
#+ATTR_HTML: :border 2 :rules all :frame border

You can also modify the default tags used for each row by setting
org-html-table-row-tags. See the docstring for an example on
how to use this option.

12.6.7 Images in HTML export

HTML export can inline images given as links in the Org file, and
it can make an image the clickable part of a link. By
default138, images are inlined if a link does
not have a description. So ‘[[file:myimg.jpg]]’ will be inlined,
while ‘[[file:myimg.jpg][the image]]’ will just produce a link
‘the image’ that points to the image. If the description part
itself is a file: link or a http: URL pointing to an
image, this image will be inlined and activated so that clicking on the
image will activate the link. For example, to include a thumbnail that
will link to a high resolution version of the image, you could use:

[[file:highres.jpg][file:thumb.jpg]]

If you need to add attributes to an inlined image, use a #+ATTR_HTML.
In the example below we specify the alt and title attributes to
support text viewers and accessibility, and align it to the right.

12.6.8 Math formatting in HTML export

LaTeX math snippets (see LaTeX fragments) can be displayed in two
different ways on HTML pages. The default is to use the
MathJax system which should work out of the
box with Org mode installation because http://orgmode.org serves
MathJax for Org mode users for small applications and for testing
purposes. If you plan to use this regularly or on pages with significant
page views, you should install139 MathJax on
your own server in order to limit the load of our server. To configure
MathJax, use the variable org-html-mathjax-options or
insert something like the following into the buffer:

#+HTML_MATHJAX: align:"left" mathml:t path:"/MathJax/MathJax.js"

See the docstring of the variable
org-html-mathjax-options for the meaning of the parameters in
this line.

If you prefer, you can also request that LaTeX fragments are processed
into small images that will be inserted into the browser page. Before the
availability of MathJax, this was the default method for Org files. This
method requires that the dvipng program or imagemagick suite is
available on your system. You can still get this processing with

12.6.9 Text areas in HTML export

An alternative way to publish literal code examples in HTML is to use text
areas, where the example can even be edited before pasting it into an
application. It is triggered by :textarea attribute at an
example or src block.

You may also use :height and :width attributes to specify the
height and width of the text area, which default to the number of lines in
the example, and 80, respectively. For example

12.6.10 CSS support

You can modify the CSS style definitions for the exported file. The HTML
exporter assigns the following special CSS classes140 to appropriate parts of the document—your style
specifications may change these, in addition to any of the standard classes
like for headlines, tables, etc.

Each exported file contains a compact default style that defines these
classes in a basic way141. You may overwrite these settings, or
add to them by using the variables org-html-head and
org-html-head-extra. You can override the global values of these
variables for each file by using these keywords:

For longer style definitions, you can use several such lines. You could also
directly write a <style></style> section in this way, without
referring to an external file.

In order to add styles to a subtree, use the :HTML_CONTAINER_CLASS:
property to assign a class to the tree. In order to specify CSS styles for a
particular headline, you can use the id specified in a :CUSTOM_ID:
property.

12.6.11 JavaScript supported display of web pages

Sebastian Rose has written a JavaScript program especially designed to
enhance the web viewing experience of HTML files created with Org. This
program allows you to view large files in two different ways. The first one
is an Info-like mode where each section is displayed separately and
navigation can be done with the n and p keys (and some other keys
as well, press ? for an overview of the available keys). The second
view type is a folding view much like Org provides inside Emacs. The
script is available at http://orgmode.org/org-info.js and you can find
the documentation for it at http://orgmode.org/worg/code/org-info-js/.
We host the script at our site, but if you use it a lot, you might not want
to be dependent on http://orgmode.org and prefer to install a local
copy on your own web server.

All it then takes to use this program is adding a single line to the Org
file:

#+INFOJS_OPT: view:info toc:nil

If this line is found, the HTML header will automatically contain the code
needed to invoke the script. Using the line above, you can set the following
viewing options:

path: The path to the script. The default is to grab the script fromhttp://orgmode.org/org-info.js, but you might want to havea local copy and use a path like ‘../scripts/org-info.js’.
view: Initial view when the website is first shown. Possible values are:
info Info-like interface with one section per page.
overview Folding interface, initially showing only top-level.
content Folding interface, starting with all headlines visible.
showall Folding interface, all headlines and text visible.
sdepth: Maximum headline level that will still become an independentsection for info and folding modes. The default is taken fromorg-export-headline-levels (= the H switch in #+OPTIONS).If this is smaller than in org-export-headline-levels, eachinfo/folding section can still contain child headlines.
toc: Should the table of contents initially be visible?Even when nil, you can always get to the "toc" with i.
tdepth: The depth of the table of contents. The defaults are taken fromthe variables org-export-headline-levels and org-export-with-toc.
ftoc: Does the CSS of the page specify a fixed position for the "toc"?If yes, the toc will never be displayed as a section.
ltoc: Should there be short contents (children) in each section?Make this above if the section should be above initial text.
mouse: Headings are highlighted when the mouse is over them. Should be‘underline’ (default) or a background color like ‘#cccccc’.
buttons: Should view-toggle buttons be everywhere? When nil (thedefault), only one such button will be present.

You can choose default values for these options by customizing the variable
org-html-infojs-options. If you always want to apply the script to your
pages, configure the variable org-html-use-infojs.

12.7 LaTeX and PDF export

LaTeX export can produce an arbitrarily complex LaTeX document of any
standard or custom document class. With further processing142,
which the LaTeX exporter is able to control, this back-end is able to
produce PDF output. Because the LaTeX exporter can be configured to use
the hyperref package, the default setup produces fully-linked PDF
output.

As in LaTeX, blank lines are meaningful for this back-end: a paragraph
will not be started if two contiguous syntactical elements are not separated
by an empty line.

This back-end also offers enhanced support for footnotes. Thus, it handles
nested footnotes, footnotes in tables and footnotes in a list item’s
description.

12.7.2 Header and sectioning structure

By default, the first three outline levels become headlines, defining a
general document structure. Additional levels are exported as itemize
or enumerate lists. The transition can also occur at a different
level (see Export settings).

By default, the LaTeX output uses the class article.

You can change this globally by setting a different value for
org-latex-default-class or locally by adding an option like
#+LATEX_CLASS: myclass in your file, or with
a EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS property that applies when exporting a region
containing only this (sub)tree. The class must be listed in
org-latex-classes. This variable defines a header template for each
class143, and allows you to define the sectioning structure for each
class. You can also define your own classes there.

The LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS keyword or EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS
property can specify the options for the \documentclass macro. These
options have to be provided, as expected by LaTeX, within square brackets.

You can also use the LATEX_HEADER and
LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA144 keywords in order
to add lines to the header. See the docstring of org-latex-classes for
more information.

12.7.3 Quoting LaTeX code

Embedded LaTeX as described in Embedded LaTeX, will be correctly
inserted into the LaTeX file. Furthermore, you can add special code that
should only be present in LaTeX export with the following constructs:

Code within @@latex:some code@@ a paragraph.
#+LATEX: Literal LaTeX code for export
#+BEGIN_LATEX
All lines between these markers are exported literally
#+END_LATEX

12.7.4 LaTeX specific attributes

Tables in LaTeX export

For LaTeX export of a table, you can specify a label and a caption
(see Images and tables). You can also use attributes to control table
layout and contents. Valid LaTeX attributes include:

:mode

Nature of table’s contents. It can be set to table, math,
inline-math or verbatim. In particular, when in math or
inline-math mode, every cell is exported as-is, horizontal rules are
ignored and the table will be wrapped in a math environment. Also,
contiguous tables sharing the same math mode will be wrapped within the same
environment. Default mode is determined in
org-latex-default-table-mode.

:environment

Environment used for the table. It can be set to any LaTeX table
environment, like tabularx145,
longtable, array, tabu146,
bmatrix... It defaults to
org-latex-default-table-environment value.

:caption

#+CAPTION keyword is the simplest way to set a caption for a table
(see Images and tables). If you need more advanced commands for that
task, you can use :caption attribute instead. Its value should be raw
LaTeX code. It has precedence over #+CAPTION.

:float

:placement

Float environment for the table. Possible values are sidewaystable,
multicolumn, t and nil. When unspecified, a table with
a caption will have a table environment. Moreover, :placement
attribute can specify the positioning of the float.

:align

:font

:width

Set, respectively, the alignment string of the table, its font size and its
width. They only apply on regular tables.

:spread

Boolean specific to the tabu and longtabu environments, and
only takes effect when used in conjunction with the :width attribute.
When :spread is non-nil, the table will be spread or shrunk by the
value of :width.

:booktabs

:center

:rmlines

They toggle, respectively, booktabs usage (assuming the package is
properly loaded), table centering and removal of every horizontal rule but
the first one (in a "table.el" table only). In particular,
org-latex-tables-booktabs (respectively org-latex-tables-centered)
activates the first (respectively second) attribute globally.

:math-prefix

:math-suffix

:math-arguments

A string that will be inserted, respectively, before the table within the
math environment, after the table within the math environment, and between
the macro name and the contents of the table. The :math-arguments
attribute is used for matrix macros that require more than one argument
(e.g., qbordermatrix).

Thus, attributes can be used in a wide array of situations, like writing
a table that will span over multiple pages, or a matrix product:

Images in LaTeX export

Images that are linked to without a description part in the link, like
‘[[file:img.jpg]]’ or ‘[[./img.jpg]]’ will be inserted into the PDF
output file resulting from LaTeX processing. Org will use an
\includegraphics macro to insert the image147.

You can specify specify image width or height with, respectively,
:width and :height attributes. It is also possible to add any
other option with the :options attribute, as shown in the following
example:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :width 5cm :options angle=90
[[./img/sed-hr4049.pdf]]

If you need a specific command for the caption, use :caption
attribute. It will override standard #+CAPTION value, if any.

If you have specified a caption as described in Images and tables, the
picture will be wrapped into a figure environment and thus become
a floating element. You can also ask Org to export an image as a float
without specifying caption by setting the :float attribute. You may
also set it to:

- t: if you want to use the standard ‘figure’ environment. It is
used by default if you provide a caption to the image.

- multicolumn: if you wish to include an image which spans multiple
columns in a page. This will export the image wrapped in a figure*
environment.

- wrap: if you would like to let text flow around the image. It will
make the figure occupy the left half of the page.

- nil: if you need to avoid any floating environment, even when
a caption is provided.

To modify the placement option of any floating environment, set the
placement attribute.

If the :comment-include attribute is set to a non-nil value,
the LaTeX \includegraphics macro will be commented out.

Plain lists in LaTeX export

Plain lists accept two optional attributes: :environment and
:options. The first one allows the use of a non-standard environment
(e.g., ‘inparaenum’). The second one specifies additional arguments for
that environment.

Source blocks in LaTeX export

- t: if you want to make the source block a float. It is the default
value when a caption is provided.

- multicolumn: if you wish to include a source block which spans multiple
columns in a page.

- nil: if you need to avoid any floating environment, even when a caption
is provided. It is useful for source code that may not fit in a single page.

#+ATTR_LATEX: :float nil
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
Code that may not fit in a single page.
#+END_SRC

Special blocks in LaTeX export

In LaTeX back-end, special blocks become environments of the same name.
Value of :options attribute will be appended as-is to that
environment’s opening string. For example:

#+BEGIN_ABSTRACT
We demonstrate how to solve the Syracuse problem.
#+END_ABSTRACT
#+ATTR_LATEX: :options [Proof of important theorem]
#+BEGIN_PROOF
...
Therefore, any even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes.
#+END_PROOF

becomes

\begin{abstract}
We demonstrate how to solve the Syracuse problem.
\end{abstract}
\begin{proof}[Proof of important theorem]
...
Therefore, any even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes.
\end{proof}

If you need to insert a specific caption command, use :caption
attribute. It will override standard #+CAPTION value, if any. For
example:

12.8 Markdown export

It is built over HTML back-end: any construct not supported by Markdown
syntax (e.g., tables) will be controlled and translated by html
back-end (see HTML export).

Markdown export commands

C-c C-e m m (org-md-export-to-markdown)

Export as a text file written in Markdown syntax. For an Org file,
myfile.org, the resulting file will be myfile.md. The file
will be overwritten without warning.

C-c C-e m M (org-md-export-as-markdown)

Export to a temporary buffer. Do not create a file.

C-c C-e m o

Export as a text file with Markdown syntax, then open it.

Header and sectioning structure

Markdown export can generate both atx and setext types for
headlines, according to org-md-headline-style. The former introduces
a hard limit of two levels, whereas the latter pushes it to six. Headlines
below that limit are exported as lists. You can also set a soft limit before
that one (see Export settings).

For an Org file myfile.org, the ODT file will be
myfile.odt. The file will be overwritten without warning. If there
is an active region,151 only the region will be exported. If the selected region is a
single tree,152 the
tree head will become the document title. If the tree head entry has, or
inherits, an EXPORT_FILE_NAME property, that name will be used for the
export.

C-c C-e o O
Export as an OpenDocument Text file and open the resulting file.

12.9.3 Extending ODT export

The ODT exporter can interface with a variety of document
converters and supports popular converters out of the box. As a result, you
can use it to export to formats like ‘doc’ or convert a document from
one format (say ‘csv’) to another format (say ‘ods’ or ‘xls’).

If you have a working installation of LibreOffice, a document converter is
pre-configured for you and you can use it right away. If you would like to
use unoconv as your preferred converter, customize the variable
org-odt-convert-process to point to unoconv. You can
also use your own favorite converter or tweak the default settings of the
LibreOffice and ‘unoconv’ converters. See Configuring a document converter.

12.9.3.1 Automatically exporting to other formats

Very often, you will find yourself exporting to ODT format, only to
immediately save the exported document to other formats like ‘doc’,
‘docx’, ‘rtf’, ‘pdf’ etc. In such cases, you can specify your
preferred output format by customizing the variable
org-odt-preferred-output-format. This way, the export commands
(see Exporting to ODT) can be extended to export to a
format that is of immediate interest to you.

12.9.3.2 Converting between document formats

There are many document converters in the wild which support conversion to
and from various file formats, including, but not limited to the
ODT format. LibreOffice converter, mentioned above, is one such
converter. Once a converter is configured, you can interact with it using
the following command.

M-x org-odt-convert RET

Convert an existing document from one format to another. With a prefix
argument, also open the newly produced file.

12.9.4 Applying custom styles

The ODT exporter ships with a set of OpenDocument styles
(see Working with OpenDocument style files) that ensure a well-formatted
output. These factory styles, however, may not cater to your specific
tastes. To customize the output, you can either modify the above styles
files directly, or generate the required styles using an application like
LibreOffice. The latter method is suitable for expert and non-expert
users alike, and is described here.

12.9.4.1 Applying custom styles: the easy way

Create a sample example.org file with the below settings and export it
to ODT format.

#+OPTIONS: H:10 num:t

Open the above example.odt using LibreOffice. Use the Stylist
to locate the target styles—these typically have the ‘Org’ prefix—and
modify those to your taste. Save the modified file either as an
OpenDocument Text (.odt) or OpenDocument Template (.ott) file.

Customize the variable org-odt-styles-file and point it to the
newly created file. For additional configuration options
see Overriding factory styles.

If you would like to choose a style on a per-file basis, you can use the
#+ODT_STYLES_FILE option. A typical setting will look like

12.9.4.2 Using third-party styles and templates

You can use third-party styles and templates for customizing your output.
This will produce the desired output only if the template provides all
style names that the ‘ODT’ exporter relies on. Unless this condition is
met, the output is going to be less than satisfactory. So it is highly
recommended that you only work with templates that are directly derived from
the factory settings.

12.9.6 Tables in ODT export

Export of native Org mode tables (see Tables) and simple table.el
tables is supported. However, export of complex table.el tables—tables
that have column or row spans—is not supported. Such tables are
stripped from the exported document.

By default, a table is exported with top and bottom frames and with rules
separating row and column groups (see Column groups). Furthermore, all
tables are typeset to occupy the same width. If the table specifies
alignment and relative width for its columns (see Column width and alignment) then these are honored on export.153

You can control the width of the table by specifying :rel-width
property using an #+ATTR_ODT line.

For example, consider the following table which makes use of all the rules
mentioned above.

On export, the table will occupy 50% of text area. The columns will be sized
(roughly) in the ratio of 13:5:5:5:6. The first column will be left-aligned
and rest of the columns will be right-aligned. There will be vertical rules
after separating the header and last columns from other columns. There will
be horizontal rules separating the header and last rows from other rows.

If you are not satisfied with the above formatting options, you can create
custom table styles and associate them with a table using the
#+ATTR_ODT line. See Customizing tables in ODT export.

12.9.7 Images in ODT export

Embedding images

You can embed images within the exported document by providing a link to the
desired image file with no link description. For example, to embed
‘img.png’ do either of the following:

[[file:img.png]]

[[./img.png]]

Embedding clickable images

You can create clickable images by providing a link whose description is a
link to an image file. For example, to embed a image
org-mode-unicorn.png which when clicked jumps to
http://Orgmode.org website, do the following

[[http://orgmode.org][./org-mode-unicorn.png]]

Sizing and scaling of embedded images

You can control the size and scale of the embedded images using the
#+ATTR_ODT attribute.

The exporter specifies the desired size of the image in the final document in
units of centimeters. In order to scale the embedded images, the exporter
queries for pixel dimensions of the images using one of a) ImageMagick’s
identify program or b) Emacs ‘create-image’ and ‘image-size’
APIs154. The pixel dimensions are subsequently
converted in to units of centimeters using
org-odt-pixels-per-inch. The default value of this variable is
set to display-pixels-per-inch. You can tweak this variable to
achieve the best results.

The examples below illustrate the various possibilities.

Explicitly size the image

To embed img.png as a 10 cm x 10 cm image, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :width 10 :height 10
[[./img.png]]

Scale the image

To embed img.png at half its size, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :scale 0.5
[[./img.png]]

Scale the image to a specific width

To embed img.png with a width of 10 cm while retaining the original
height:width ratio, do the following:

#+ATTR_ODT: :width 10
[[./img.png]]

Scale the image to a specific height

To embed img.png with a height of 10 cm while retaining the original
height:width ratio, do the following

#+ATTR_ODT: :height 10
[[./img.png]]

Anchoring of images

You can control the manner in which an image is anchored by setting the
:anchor property of it’s #+ATTR_ODT line. You can specify one
of the following three values for the :anchor property:
‘"as-char"’, ‘"paragraph"’ and ‘"page"’.

12.9.8.1 Working with LaTeX math snippets

LaTeX math snippets (see LaTeX fragments) can be embedded in the ODT
document in one of the following ways:

MathML

This option is activated on a per-file basis with

#+OPTIONS: LaTeX:t

With this option, LaTeX fragments are first converted into MathML
fragments using an external LaTeX-to-MathML converter program. The
resulting MathML fragments are then embedded as an OpenDocument Formula in
the exported document.

You can specify the LaTeX-to-MathML converter by customizing the variables
org-latex-to-mathml-convert-command and
org-latex-to-mathml-jar-file.

If you prefer to use MathToWeb155 as your
converter, you can configure the above variables as shown below.

You can use the following commands to quickly verify the reliability of
the LaTeX-to-MathML converter.

M-x org-odt-export-as-odf RET

Convert a LaTeX math snippet to an OpenDocument formula (.odf) file.

M-x org-odt-export-as-odf-and-open RET

Convert a LaTeX math snippet to an OpenDocument formula (.odf) file
and open the formula file with the system-registered application.

PNG images

This option is activated on a per-file basis with

#+OPTIONS: tex:dvipng

or:

#+OPTIONS: tex:imagemagick

With this option, LaTeX fragments are processed into PNG images and the
resulting images are embedded in the exported document. This method requires
that the dvipng program or imagemagick suite be available on
your system.

12.9.8.2 Working with MathML or OpenDocument formula files

For various reasons, you may find embedding LaTeX math snippets in an
ODT document less than reliable. In that case, you can embed a
math equation by linking to its MathML (.mml) source or its
OpenDocument formula (.odf) file as shown below:

12.9.9 Labels and captions in ODT export

You can label and caption various category of objects—an inline image, a
table, a LaTeX fragment or a Math formula—using #+LABEL and
#+CAPTION lines. See Images and tables. ODT exporter enumerates
each labeled or captioned object of a given category separately. As a
result, each such object is assigned a sequence number based on order of it’s
appearance in the Org file.

In the exported document, a user-provided caption is augmented with the
category and sequence number. Consider the following inline image in an Org
file.

#+CAPTION: Bell curve
#+LABEL: fig:SED-HR4049
[[./img/a.png]]

It could be rendered as shown below in the exported document.

Figure 2: Bell curve

You can modify the category component of the caption by customizing the
option org-odt-category-map-alist. For example, to tag all embedded
images with the string ‘Illustration’ (instead of the default
‘Figure’) use the following setting:

12.9.10 Literal examples in ODT export

Export of literal examples (see Literal examples) with full fontification
is supported. Internally, the exporter relies on htmlfontify.el to
generate all style definitions needed for a fancy listing.156 The auto-generated styles have ‘OrgSrc’
as prefix and inherit their color from the faces used by Emacs
font-lock library for the source language.

If you prefer to use your own custom styles for fontification, you can do
so by customizing the option
org-odt-create-custom-styles-for-srcblocks.

You can turn off fontification of literal examples by customizing the
option org-odt-fontify-srcblocks.

12.9.11.1 Configuring a document converter

The ODT exporter can work with popular converters with little or no
extra configuration from your side. See Extending ODT export.
If you are using a converter that is not supported by default or if you would
like to tweak the default converter settings, proceed as below.

Register the converter

Name your converter and add it to the list of known converters by
customizing the option org-odt-convert-processes. Also specify how
the converter can be invoked via command-line to effect the conversion.

Configure its capabilities

Specify the set of formats the
converter can handle by customizing the variable
org-odt-convert-capabilities. Use the default value for this
variable as a guide for configuring your converter. As suggested by the
default setting, you can specify the full set of formats supported by the
converter and not limit yourself to specifying formats that are related to
just the OpenDocument Text format.

Choose the converter

Select the newly added converter as the preferred one by customizing the
option org-odt-convert-process.

12.9.11.2 Working with OpenDocument style files

This section explores the internals of the ODT exporter and the
means by which it produces styled documents. Read this section if you are
interested in exploring the automatic and custom OpenDocument styles used by
the exporter.

Factory styles

The ODT exporter relies on two files for generating its output.
These files are bundled with the distribution under the directory pointed to
by the variable org-odt-styles-dir. The two files are:

OrgOdtStyles.xml

This file contributes to the styles.xml file of the final ‘ODT’
document. This file gets modified for the following purposes:

To control outline numbering based on user settings.

To add styles generated by htmlfontify.el for fontification of code
blocks.

OrgOdtContentTemplate.xml

This file contributes to the content.xml file of the final ‘ODT’
document. The contents of the Org outline are inserted between the
‘<office:text>’…‘</office:text>’ elements of this file.

Apart from serving as a template file for the final content.xml, the
file serves the following purposes:

It contains automatic styles for formatting of tables which are referenced by
the exporter.

It contains ‘<text:sequence-decl>’…‘</text:sequence-decl>’
elements that control how various entities—tables, images, equations,
etc.—are numbered.

Overriding factory styles

The following two variables control the location from which the ODT
exporter picks up the custom styles and content template files. You can
customize these variables to override the factory styles used by the
exporter.

org-odt-styles-file

Use this variable to specify the styles.xml that will be used in the
final output. You can specify one of the following values:

A styles.xml file

Use this file instead of the default styles.xml

A .odt or .ott file

Use the styles.xml contained in the specified OpenDocument Text or
Template file

A .odt or .ott file and a subset of files contained within them

Use the styles.xml contained in the specified OpenDocument Text or
Template file. Additionally extract the specified member files and embed
those within the final ‘ODT’ document.

Use this option if the styles.xml file references additional files
like header and footer images.

nil

Use the default styles.xml

org-odt-content-template-file

Use this variable to specify the blank content.xml that will be used
in the final output.

12.9.11.3 Creating one-off styles

There are times when you would want one-off formatting in the exported
document. You can achieve this by embedding raw OpenDocument XML in the Org
file. The use of this feature is better illustrated with couple of examples.

Embedding ODT tags as part of regular text

You can inline OpenDocument syntax by enclosing it within
‘@@odt:...@@’ markup. For example, to highlight a region of text do
the following:

@@odt:<text:span text:style-name="Highlight">This is a highlighted
text</text:span>@@. But this is a regular text.

Hint: To see the above example in action, edit your
styles.xml (see Factory styles) and add a
custom ‘Highlight’ style as shown below.

In the above example, you used a template named ‘Custom’ and installed
two table styles with the names ‘TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn’ and
‘TableWithFirstRowandLastRow’. (Important: The OpenDocument
styles needed for producing the above template have been pre-defined for
you. These styles are available under the section marked ‘Custom
Table Template’ in OrgOdtContentTemplate.xml
(see Factory styles). If you need
additional templates you have to define these styles yourselves.

To define a table style, create an entry for the style in the variable
org-odt-table-styles and specify the following:

- the name of the table template created in step (1)

- the set of cell styles in that template that are to be activated

For example, the entry below defines two different table styles
‘TableWithHeaderRowAndColumn’ and ‘TableWithFirstRowandLastRow’
based on the same template ‘Custom’. The styles achieve their intended
effect by selectively activating the individual cell styles in that template.

12.9.11.5 Validating OpenDocument XML

Occasionally, you will discover that the document created by the
ODT exporter cannot be opened by your favorite application. One of
the common reasons for this is that the .odt file is corrupt. In such
cases, you may want to validate the document against the OpenDocument RELAX
NG Compact Syntax (RNC) schema.

If you have ready access to OpenDocument .rnc files and the needed
schema-locating rules in a single folder, you can customize the variable
org-odt-schema-dir to point to that directory. The ODT exporter
will take care of updating the rng-schema-locating-files for you.

12.10 Org export

org export back-end creates a normalized version of the Org document
in current buffer. In particular, it evaluates Babel code (see Evaluating code blocks) and removes other back-ends specific contents.

Org export commands

C-c C-e O o (org-org-export-to-org)

Export as an Org document. For an Org file, myfile.org, the resulting
file will be myfile.org.org. The file will be overwritten without
warning.

12.11.2 Document preamble

When processing a document, ‘texinfo’ back-end generates a minimal file
header along with a title page, a copyright page, and a menu. You control
the latter through the structure of the document (see Headings and sectioning structure). Various keywords allow to tweak the other parts. It
is also possible to give directions to install the document in the ‘Top’
node.

File header

Upon creating the header of a Texinfo file, the back-end guesses a name for
the Info file to be compiled. This may not be a sensible choice, e.g., if
you want to produce the final document in a different directory. Specify an
alternate path with #+TEXINFO_FILENAME keyword to override the default
destination.

Along with the output file name, the header contains information about the
language (see Export settings) and current encoding used162. Insert
a #+TEXINFO_HEADER keyword for each additional command needed, e.g.,
@code{@synindex}.

If you happen to regularly install the same set of commands, it may be easier
to define your own class in org-texinfo-classes, which see. Set
#+TEXINFO_CLASS keyword accordingly in your document to activate it.

Title and copyright page

The default template includes a title page for hard copy output. The title
and author displayed on this page are extracted from, respectively,
#+TITLE and #+AUTHOR keywords (see Export settings). It is
also possible to print a different, more specific, title with
#+TEXINFO_PRINTED_TITLE keyword, and add subtitles with
#+SUBTITLE keyword. Both expect raw Texinfo code in their value.

Likewise, information brought by #+AUTHOR may not be enough. You can
include other authors with several #+SUBAUTHOR keywords. Values are
also expected to be written in Texinfo code.

#+AUTHOR: Jane Smith
#+SUBAUTHOR: John Doe
#+TEXINFO_PRINTED_TITLE: This Long Title@inlinefmt{tex,@*} Is Broken in @TeX{}

Copying material is defined in a dedicated headline with a non-nil
:COPYING: property. The contents are inserted within
a @copying command at the beginning of the document whereas the
heading itself does not appear in the structure of the document.

The Top node

You may ultimately want to install your new Info file to your system. You
can write an appropriate entry in the top level directory specifying its
category and title with, respectively, #+TEXINFO_DIR_CATEGORY and
#+TEXINFO_DIR_TITLE. Optionally, you can add a short description
using #+TEXINFO_DIR_DESC. The following example would write an entry
similar to Org’s in the ‘Top’ node.

12.11.3 Headings and sectioning structure

‘texinfo’ uses a pre-defined scheme, or class, to convert headlines into
Texinfo structuring commands. For example, a top level headline appears as
@chapter if it should be numbered or as @unnumbered
otherwise. If you need to use a different set of commands, e.g., to start
with @part instead of @chapter, install a new class in
org-texinfo-classes, then activate it with #+TEXINFO_CLASS
keyword. Export process defaults to org-texinfo-default-class when
there is no such keyword in the document.

If a headline’s level has no associated structuring command, or is below
a certain threshold see Export settings, that headline becomes a list in
Texinfo output.

As an exception, a headline with a non-nil :APPENDIX: property becomes
an appendix, independently on its level and the class used.

Each regular sectioning structure creates a menu entry, named after the
heading. You can provide a different, e.g., shorter, title in
:ALT_TITLE: property (see Table of contents). Optionally, you can
specify a description for the item in :DESCRIPTION: property. E.g.,

To generate an index, you need to set the :INDEX: property of
a headline to an appropriate abbreviation (e.g., ‘cp’ or ‘vr’).
The headline is then exported as an unnumbered chapter or section command and
the index is inserted after its contents.

12.11.6 Texinfo specific attributes

‘texinfo’ back-end understands several attributes in plain lists and
tables. They must be specified using an #+ATTR_TEXINFO keyword,
written just above the list or table.

Plain lists

In Texinfo output, description lists appear as two-column tables, using the
default command @table. You can use @ftable or
@vtable163 instead with :table-type attribute.

In any case, these constructs require a highlighting command for entries in
the list. You can provide one with :indic attribute. If you do not,
it defaults to the value stored in org-texinfo-def-table-markup, which
see.

#+ATTR_TEXINFO: :indic @asis
- foo :: This is the text for /foo/, with no highlighting.

Tables

When exporting a table, column widths are deduced from the longest cell in
each column. You can also define them explicitly as fractions of the line
length, using :columns attribute.

12.12 iCalendar export

Some people use Org mode for keeping track of projects, but still prefer a
standard calendar application for anniversaries and appointments. In this
case it can be useful to show deadlines and other time-stamped items in Org
files in the calendar application. Org mode can export calendar information
in the standard iCalendar format. If you also want to have TODO entries
included in the export, configure the variable
org-icalendar-include-todo. Plain timestamps are exported as VEVENT,
and TODO items as VTODO. It will also create events from deadlines that are
in non-TODO items. Deadlines and scheduling dates in TODO items will be used
to set the start and due dates for the TODO entry164.
As categories, it will use the tags locally defined in the heading, and the
file/tree category165. See the variable
org-icalendar-alarm-time for a way to assign alarms to entries with a
time.

The iCalendar standard requires each entry to have a globally unique
identifier (UID). Org creates these identifiers during export. If you set
the variable org-icalendar-store-UID, the UID will be stored in the
:ID: property of the entry and re-used next time you report this
entry. Since a single entry can give rise to multiple iCalendar entries (as
a timestamp, a deadline, a scheduled item, and as a TODO item), Org adds
prefixes to the UID, depending on what triggered the inclusion of the entry.
In this way the UID remains unique, but a synchronization program can still
figure out from which entry all the different instances originate.

C-c C-e c f (org-icalendar-export-to-ics)

Create iCalendar entries for the current buffer and store them in the same
directory, using a file extension .ics.

C-c C-e c a (org-icalendar-export-agenda-files)

Like C-c C-e c f, but do this for all files in
org-agenda-files. For each of these files, a separate iCalendar
file will be written.

C-c C-e c c (org-icalendar-combine-agenda-files)

Create a single large iCalendar file from all files in
org-agenda-files and write it to the file given by
org-icalendar-combined-agenda-file.

The export will honor SUMMARY, DESCRIPTION and LOCATION166 properties if the selected
entries have them. If not, the summary will be derived from the headline,
and the description from the body (limited to
org-icalendar-include-body characters).

How this calendar is best read and updated, depends on the application
you are using. The FAQ covers this issue.

12.14 Export in foreign buffers

Most built-in back-ends come with a command to convert the selected region
into a selected format and replace this region by the exported output. Here
is a list of such conversion commands:

org-html-convert-region-to-html

Convert the selected region into HTML.

org-latex-convert-region-to-latex

Convert the selected region into LaTeX.

org-texinfo-convert-region-to-texinfo

Convert the selected region into Texinfo.

org-md-convert-region-to-md

Convert the selected region into MarkDown.

This is particularly useful for converting tables and lists in foreign
buffers. E.g., in an HTML buffer, you can turn on orgstruct-mode, then
use Org commands for editing a list, and finally select and convert the list
with M-x org-html-convert-region-to-html RET.

12.15 Advanced configuration

Hooks

Two hooks are run during the first steps of the export process. The first
one, org-export-before-processing-hook is called before expanding
macros, Babel code and include keywords in the buffer. The second one,
org-export-before-parsing-hook, as its name suggests, happens just
before parsing the buffer. Their main use is for heavy duties, that is
duties involving structural modifications of the document. For example, one
may want to remove every headline in the buffer during export. The following
code can achieve this:

Note that functions used in these hooks require a mandatory argument,
a symbol representing the back-end used.

Filters

Filters are lists of functions applied on a specific part of the output from
a given back-end. More explicitly, each time a back-end transforms an Org
object or element into another language, all functions within a given filter
type are called in turn on the string produced. The string returned by the
last function will be the one used in the final output.

There are filters sets for each type of element or object, for plain text,
for the parse tree, for the export options and for the final output. They
are all named after the same scheme: org-export-filter-TYPE-functions,
where TYPE is the type targeted by the filter. Valid types are:

bold

babel-call

center-block

clock

code

comment

comment-block

diary-sexp

drawer

dynamic-block

entity

example-block

export-block

export-snippet

final-output

fixed-width

footnote-definition

footnote-reference

headline

horizontal-rule

inline-babel-call

inline-src-block

inlinetask

italic

item

keyword

latex-environment

latex-fragment

line-break

link

node-property

options

paragraph

parse-tree

plain-list

plain-text

planning

property-drawer

quote-block

quote-section

radio-target

section

special-block

src-block

statistics-cookie

strike-through

subscript

superscript

table

table-cell

table-row

target

timestamp

underline

verbatim

verse-block

For example, the following snippet allows me to use non-breaking spaces in
the Org buffer and get them translated into LaTeX without using the
\nbsp macro (where _ stands for the non-breaking space):

Three arguments must be provided to a filter: the code being changed, the
back-end used, and some information about the export process. You can safely
ignore the third argument for most purposes. Note the use of
org-export-derived-backend-p, which ensures that the filter will only
be applied when using latex back-end or any other back-end derived
from it (e.g., beamer).

Extending an existing back-end

This is obviously the most powerful customization, since the changes happen
at the parser level. Indeed, some export back-ends are built as extensions
of other ones (e.g. Markdown back-end an extension of HTML back-end).

Extending a back-end means that if an element type is not transcoded by the
new back-end, it will be handled by the original one. Hence you can extend
specific parts of a back-end without too much work.

As an example, imagine we want the ascii back-end to display the
language used in a source block, when it is available, but only when some
attribute is non-nil, like the following:

#+ATTR_ASCII: :language t

Because that back-end is lacking in that area, we are going to create a new
back-end, my-ascii that will do the job.

The my-ascii-src-block function looks at the attribute above the
element. If it isn’t true, it gives hand to the ascii back-end.
Otherwise, it creates a box around the code, leaving room for the language.
A new back-end is then created. It only changes its behavior when
translating src-block type element. Now, all it takes to use the new
back-end is calling the following from an Org buffer:

(org-export-to-buffer 'my-ascii "*Org MY-ASCII Export*")

It is obviously possible to write an interactive function for this, install
it in the export dispatcher menu, and so on.

13 Publishing

Org includes a publishing management system that allows you to configure
automatic HTML conversion of projects composed of interlinked org
files. You can also configure Org to automatically upload your exported HTML
pages and related attachments, such as images and source code files, to a web
server.

You can also use Org to convert files into PDF, or even combine HTML and PDF
conversion so that files are available in both formats on the server.

13.1.1 The variable org-publish-project-alist

Publishing is configured almost entirely through setting the value of one
variable, called org-publish-project-alist. Each element of the list
configures one project, and may be in one of the two following forms:

In both cases, projects are configured by specifying property values. A
project defines the set of files that will be published, as well as the
publishing configuration to use when publishing those files. When a project
takes the second form listed above, the individual members of the
:components property are taken to be sub-projects, which group
together files requiring different publishing options. When you publish such
a “meta-project”, all the components will also be published, in the
sequence given.

13.1.2 Sources and destinations for files

Most properties are optional, but some should always be set. In
particular, Org needs to know where to look for source files,
and where to put published files.

:base-directory

Directory containing publishing source files

:publishing-directory

Directory where output files will be published. You can directly
publish to a web server using a file name syntax appropriate for
the Emacs tramp package. Or you can publish to a local directory and
use external tools to upload your website (see Uploading files).

:preparation-function

Function or list of functions to be called before starting the
publishing process, for example, to run make for updating files to be
published. The project property list is scoped into this call as the
variable project-plist.

:completion-function

Function or list of functions called after finishing the publishing
process, for example, to change permissions of the resulting files. The
project property list is scoped into this call as the variable
project-plist.

13.1.4 Publishing action

Publishing means that a file is copied to the destination directory and
possibly transformed in the process. The default transformation is to export
Org files as HTML files, and this is done by the function
org-html-publish-to-html, which calls the HTML exporter (see HTML export). But you also can publish your content as PDF files using
org-latex-publish-to-pdf or as ascii, Texinfo, etc.,
using the corresponding functions.

If you want to publish the Org file as an .org file but with the
archived, commented and tag-excluded trees removed, use the
function org-org-publish-to-org. This will produce file.org
and put it in the publishing directory. If you want a htmlized version of
this file, set the parameter :htmlized-source to t, it will
produce file.org.html in the publishing directory167.

Other files like images only need to be copied to the publishing destination.
For this you can use org-publish-attachment. For non-org files, you
always need to specify the publishing function:

:publishing-function

Function executing the publication of a file. This may also be a
list of functions, which will all be called in turn.

:htmlized-source

non-nil means, publish htmlized source.

The function must accept three arguments: a property list containing at least
a :publishing-directory property, the name of the file to be published
and the path to the publishing directory of the output file. It should take
the specified file, make the necessary transformation (if any) and place the
result into the destination folder.

13.1.5 Options for the exporters

The property list can be used to set many export options for the exporters.
In most cases, these properties correspond to user variables in Org. The
first table below lists these properties along with the variable they belong
to. The second table list HTML specific properties. See the documentation
string of these options for details.

:archived-trees

org-export-with-archived-trees

:exclude-tags

org-export-exclude-tags

:headline-levels

org-export-headline-levels

:language

org-export-default-language

:preserve-breaks

org-export-preserve-breaks

:section-numbers

org-export-with-section-numbers

:select-tags

org-export-select-tags

:with-author

org-export-with-author

:with-creator

org-export-with-creator

:with-drawers

org-export-with-drawers

:with-email

org-export-with-email

:with-emphasize

org-export-with-emphasize

:with-fixed-width

org-export-with-fixed-width

:with-footnotes

org-export-with-footnotes

:with-latex

org-export-with-latex

:with-planning

org-export-with-planning

:with-priority

org-export-with-priority

:with-special-strings

org-export-with-special-strings

:with-sub-superscript

org-export-with-sub-superscripts

:with-tables

org-export-with-tables

:with-tags

org-export-with-tags

:with-tasks

org-export-with-tasks

:with-timestamps

org-export-with-timestamps

:with-toc

org-export-with-toc

:with-todo-keywords

org-export-with-todo-keywords

:html-doctype

org-html-doctype

:html-container

org-html-container-element

:html-html5-fancy

org-html-html5-fancy

:html-xml-declaration

org-html-xml-declaration

:html-link-up

org-html-link-up

:html-link-home

org-html-link-home

:html-link-org-as-html

org-html-link-org-files-as-html

:html-link-use-abs-url

org-html-link-use-abs-url

:html-head

org-html-head

:html-head-extra

org-html-head-extra

:html-inline-images

org-html-inline-images

:html-extension

org-html-extension

:html-preamble

org-html-preamble

:html-postamble

org-html-postamble

:html-table-attributes

org-html-table-default-attributes

:html-table-row-tags

org-html-table-row-tags

:html-head-include-default-style

org-html-head-include-default-style

:html-head-include-scripts

org-html-head-include-scripts

Most of the org-export-with-* variables have the same effect in each
exporter.

When a property is given a value in org-publish-project-alist, its
setting overrides the value of the corresponding user variable (if any)
during publishing. Options set within a file (see Export settings),
however, override everything.

13.1.6 Links between published files

To create a link from one Org file to another, you would use something like
‘[[file:foo.org][The foo]]’ or simply ‘file:foo.org.’
(see Hyperlinks). When published, this link becomes a link to
foo.html. You can thus interlink the pages of your "org web" project
and the links will work as expected when you publish them to HTML. If you
also publish the Org source file and want to link to it, use an http:
link instead of a file: link, because file: links are converted
to link to the corresponding html file.

You may also link to related files, such as images. Provided you are careful
with relative file names, and provided you have also configured Org to upload
the related files, these links will work too. See Complex example, for
an example of this usage.

Plug-in function to use for generation of the sitemap.
Defaults to org-publish-org-sitemap, which generates a plain list
of links to all files in the project.

:sitemap-sort-folders

Where folders should appear in the sitemap. Set this to first
(default) or last to display folders first or last,
respectively. Any other value will mix files and folders.

:sitemap-sort-files

How the files are sorted in the site map. Set this to
alphabetically (default), chronologically or
anti-chronologically. chronologically sorts the files with
older date first while anti-chronologically sorts the files with newer
date first. alphabetically sorts the files alphabetically. The date of
a file is retrieved with org-publish-find-date.

:sitemap-ignore-case

Should sorting be case-sensitive? Default nil.

:sitemap-file-entry-format

With this option one can tell how a sitemap’s entry is formatted in the
sitemap. This is a format string with some escape sequences: %t stands
for the title of the file, %a stands for the author of the file and
%d stands for the date of the file. The date is retrieved with the
org-publish-find-date function and formatted with
org-publish-sitemap-date-format. Default %t.

:sitemap-date-format

Format string for the format-time-string function that tells how
a sitemap entry’s date is to be formatted. This property bypasses
org-publish-sitemap-date-format which defaults to %Y-%m-%d.

13.1.8 Generating an index

Org mode can generate an index across the files of a publishing project.

:makeindex

When non-nil, generate in index in the file theindex.org and
publish it as theindex.html.

The file will be created when first publishing a project with the
:makeindex set. The file only contains a statement #+INCLUDE:
"theindex.inc". You can then build around this include statement by adding
a title, style information, etc.

13.2 Uploading files

For those people already utilizing third party sync tools such as
rsync or unison, it might be preferable not to use the built in
remote publishing facilities of Org mode which rely heavily on
Tramp. Tramp, while very useful and powerful, tends not to be
so efficient for multiple file transfer and has been known to cause problems
under heavy usage.

Specialized synchronization utilities offer several advantages. In addition
to timestamp comparison, they also do content and permissions/attribute
checks. For this reason you might prefer to publish your web to a local
directory (possibly even in place with your Org files) and then use
unison or rsync to do the synchronization with the remote host.

Since Unison (for example) can be configured as to which files to transfer to
a certain remote destination, it can greatly simplify the project publishing
definition. Simply keep all files in the correct location, process your Org
files with org-publish and let the synchronization tool do the rest.
You do not need, in this scenario, to include attachments such as jpg,
css or gif files in the project definition since the 3rd party
tool syncs them.

Publishing to a local directory is also much faster than to a remote one, so
that you can afford more easily to republish entire projects. If you set
org-publish-use-timestamps-flag to nil, you gain the main
benefit of re-including any changed external files such as source example
files you might include with #+INCLUDE:. The timestamp mechanism in
Org is not smart enough to detect if included files have been modified.

13.3.2 Example: complex publishing configuration

This more complicated example publishes an entire website, including
Org files converted to HTML, image files, Emacs Lisp source code, and
style sheets. The publishing directory is remote and private files are
excluded.

To ensure that links are preserved, care should be taken to replicate
your directory structure on the web server, and to use relative file
paths. For example, if your Org files are kept in ~/org and your
publishable images in ~/images, you would link to an image with

file:../images/myimage.png

On the web server, the relative path to the image should be the
same. You can accomplish this by setting up an "images" folder in the
right place on the web server, and publishing images to it.

13.4 Triggering publication

Once properly configured, Org can publish with the following commands:

C-c C-e P x (org-publish)

Prompt for a specific project and publish all files that belong to it.

C-c C-e P p (org-publish-current-project)

Publish the project containing the current file.

C-c C-e P f (org-publish-current-file)

Publish only the current file.

C-c C-e P a (org-publish-all)

Publish every project.

Org uses timestamps to track when a file has changed. The above functions
normally only publish changed files. You can override this and force
publishing of all files by giving a prefix argument to any of the commands
above, or by customizing the variable org-publish-use-timestamps-flag.
This may be necessary in particular if files include other files via
#+SETUPFILE: or #+INCLUDE:.

14 Working with source code

Org mode provides a number of features for working with live source code,
including editing of code blocks in their native major-mode, evaluation of
code blocks, converting code blocks into source files (known as tangling
in literate programming), and exporting code blocks and their
results in several formats. This functionality was contributed by Eric
Schulte and Dan Davison, and was originally named Org-babel.

14.1 Structure of code blocks

The #+NAME: line is optional, and can be used to name the code
block. Live code blocks require that a language be specified on the
#+BEGIN_SRC line. Switches and header arguments are optional.

Live code blocks can also be specified inline using

src_<language>{<body>}

or

src_<language>[<header arguments>]{<body>}

<#+NAME: name>

This line associates a name with the code block. This is similar to the
#+NAME: Name lines that can be used to name tables in Org mode
files. Referencing the name of a code block makes it possible to evaluate
the block from other places in the file, from other files, or from Org mode
table formulas (see The spreadsheet). Names are assumed to be unique
and the behavior of Org mode when two or more blocks share the same name is
undefined.

Optional header arguments control many aspects of evaluation, export and
tangling of code blocks (see Header arguments).
Header arguments can also be set on a per-buffer or per-subtree
basis using properties.

14.2 Editing source code

Use C-c ' to edit the current code block. This brings up a language
major-mode edit buffer containing the body of the code block. Manually
saving this buffer with C-x C-s will write the contents back to the Org
buffer. You can also set org-edit-src-auto-save-idle-delay to save the
base buffer after some idle delay, or org-edit-src-turn-on-auto-save
to auto-save this buffer into a separate file using auto-save-mode.
Use C-c ' again to exit.

The org-src-mode minor mode will be active in the edit buffer. The
following variables can be used to configure the behavior of the edit
buffer. See also the customization group org-edit-structure for
further configuration options.

org-src-lang-modes

If an Emacs major-mode named <lang>-mode exists, where
<lang> is the language named in the header line of the code block,
then the edit buffer will be placed in that major-mode. This variable
can be used to map arbitrary language names to existing major modes.

org-src-window-setup

Controls the way Emacs windows are rearranged when the edit buffer is created.

org-src-preserve-indentation

By default, the value is nil, which means that when code blocks are
evaluated during export or tangled, they are re-inserted into the code block,
which may replace sequences of spaces with tab characters. When non-nil,
whitespace in code blocks will be preserved during export or tangling,
exactly as it appears. This variable is especially useful for tangling
languages such as Python, in which whitespace indentation in the output is
critical.

org-src-ask-before-returning-to-edit-buffer

By default, Org will ask before returning to an open edit buffer. Set this
variable to nil to switch without asking.

To turn on native code fontification in the Org buffer, configure the
variable org-src-fontify-natively.

14.3 Exporting code blocks

It is possible to export the code of code blocks, the results
of code block evaluation, both the code and the results of code block
evaluation, or none. For most languages, the default exports code.
However, for some languages (e.g., ditaa) the default exports the
results of code block evaluation. For information on exporting code block
bodies, see Literal examples.

The :exports header argument can be used to specify export
behavior:

Header arguments:

:exports code

The default in most languages. The body of the code block is exported, as
described in Literal examples.

:exports results

The code block will be evaluated and the results will be placed in the
Org mode buffer for export, either updating previous results of the code
block located anywhere in the buffer or, if no previous results exist,
placing the results immediately after the code block. The body of the code
block will not be exported.

:exports both

Both the code block and its results will be exported.

:exports none

Neither the code block nor its results will be exported.

It is possible to inhibit the evaluation of code blocks during export.
Setting the org-export-babel-evaluate variable to nil will
ensure that no code blocks are evaluated as part of the export process. This
can be useful in situations where potentially untrusted Org mode files are
exported in an automated fashion, for example when Org mode is used as the
markup language for a wiki. It is also possible to set this variable to
'inline-only. In that case, only inline code blocks will be
evaluated, in order to insert their results. Non-inline code blocks are
assumed to have their results already inserted in the buffer by manual
evaluation. This setting is useful to avoid expensive recalculations during
export, not to provide security.

14.4 Extracting source code

Creating pure source code files by extracting code from source blocks is
referred to as “tangling”—a term adopted from the literate programming
community. During “tangling” of code blocks their bodies are expanded
using org-babel-expand-src-block which can expand both variable and
“noweb” style references (see Noweb reference syntax).

Header arguments

:tangle no

The default. The code block is not included in the tangled output.

:tangle yes

Include the code block in the tangled output. The output file name is the
name of the org file with the extension ‘.org’ replaced by the extension
for the block language.

:tangle filename

Include the code block in the tangled output to file ‘filename’.

Functions

org-babel-tangle

Tangle the current file. Bound to C-c C-v t.

With prefix argument only tangle the current code block.

org-babel-tangle-file

Choose a file to tangle. Bound to C-c C-v f.

Hooks

org-babel-post-tangle-hook

This hook is run from within code files tangled by org-babel-tangle.
Example applications could include post-processing, compilation or evaluation
of tangled code files.

Jumping between code and Org

When tangling code from an Org-mode buffer to a source code file, you’ll
frequently find yourself viewing the file of tangled source code (e.g., many
debuggers point to lines of the source code file). It is useful to be able
to navigate from the tangled source to the Org-mode buffer from which the
code originated.

The org-babel-tangle-jump-to-org function provides this jumping from
code to Org-mode functionality. Two header arguments are required for
jumping to work, first the padline (padline) option must be set
to true (the default setting), second the comments (comments)
header argument must be set to links, which will insert comments into
the source code buffer which point back to the original Org-mode file.

14.5 Evaluating code blocks

Code blocks can be evaluated169 and the results of evaluation optionally placed in the
Org mode buffer. The results of evaluation are placed following a line that
begins by default with #+RESULTS and optionally a cache identifier
and/or the name of the evaluated code block. The default value of
#+RESULTS can be changed with the customizable variable
org-babel-results-keyword.

By default, the evaluation facility is only enabled for Lisp code blocks
specified as emacs-lisp. However, source code blocks in many languages
can be evaluated within Org mode (see Languages for a list of supported
languages and Structure of code blocks for information on the syntax
used to define a code block).

There are a number of ways to evaluate code blocks. The simplest is to press
C-c C-c or C-c C-v e with the point on a code block170. This will call the
org-babel-execute-src-block function to evaluate the block and insert
its results into the Org mode buffer.

It is also possible to evaluate named code blocks from anywhere in an Org
mode buffer or an Org mode table. Live code blocks located in the current
Org mode buffer or in the “Library of Babel” (see Library of Babel)
can be executed. Named code blocks can be executed with a separate
#+CALL: line or inline within a block of text.

Arguments specified in this section will be passed to the code block. These
arguments use standard function call syntax, rather than
header argument syntax. For example, a #+CALL: line that passes the
number four to a code block named double, which declares the header
argument :var n=2, would be written as #+CALL: double(n=4).

<inside header arguments>

Inside header arguments are passed through and applied to the named code
block. These arguments use header argument syntax rather than standard
function call syntax. Inside header arguments affect how the code block is
evaluated. For example, [:results output] will collect the results of
everything printed to STDOUT during execution of the code block.

<end header arguments>

End header arguments are applied to the calling instance and do not affect
evaluation of the named code block. They affect how the results are
incorporated into the Org mode buffer and how the call line is exported. For
example, :results html will insert the results of the call line
evaluation in the Org buffer, wrapped in a BEGIN_HTML: block.

14.6 Library of Babel

The “Library of Babel” consists of code blocks that can be called from any
Org mode file. Code blocks defined in the “Library of Babel” can be called
remotely as if they were in the current Org mode buffer (see Evaluating code blocks for information on the syntax of remote code block evaluation).

The central repository of code blocks in the “Library of Babel” is housed
in an Org mode file located in the ‘contrib’ directory of Org mode.

Users can add code blocks they believe to be generally useful to their
“Library of Babel.” The code blocks can be stored in any Org mode file and
then loaded into the library with org-babel-lob-ingest.

Code blocks located in any Org mode file can be loaded into the “Library of
Babel” with the org-babel-lob-ingest function, bound to C-c C-v
i.

The option org-babel-load-languages controls which languages are
enabled for evaluation (by default only emacs-lisp is enabled). This
variable can be set using the customization interface or by adding code like
the following to your emacs configuration.

The following disables emacs-lisp evaluation and enables evaluation of
R code blocks.

14.8.1 Using header arguments

The values of header arguments can be set in several way. When the header
arguments in each layer have been determined, they are combined in order from
the first, least specific (having the lowest priority) up to the last, most
specific (having the highest priority). A header argument with a higher
priority replaces the same header argument specified at lower priority.

System-wide header arguments

For example, the following example could be used to set the default value of
:noweb header arguments to yes. This would have the effect of
expanding :noweb references by default when evaluating source code
blocks.

Language-specific header arguments

Language-specific header arguments

Each language can define its own set of default header arguments in variable
org-babel-default-header-args:<lang>, where <lang> is the name
of the language. See the language-specific documentation available online at
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel.

Header arguments in Org mode properties

Header arguments in Org mode properties

Buffer-wide header arguments may be specified as properties through the use
of #+PROPERTY: lines placed anywhere in an Org mode file (see
Property syntax).

For example the following would set session to *R* (only for R
code blocks), and results to silent for every code block in the
buffer, ensuring that all execution took place in the same session, and no
results would be inserted into the buffer.

Header arguments read from Org mode properties can also be set on a
per-subtree basis using property drawers (see Property syntax).
When properties are used to set default header arguments, they are always
looked up with inheritance, regardless of the value of
org-use-property-inheritance. Properties are evaluated as seen by the
outermost call or source block.171

In the following example the value of
the :cache header argument will default to yes in all code
blocks in the subtree rooted at the following heading:

* outline header
:PROPERTIES:
:header-args: :cache yes
:END:

Properties defined in this way override the properties set in
org-babel-default-header-args and are applied for all activated
languages. It is convenient to use the org-set-property function
bound to C-c C-x p to set properties in Org mode documents.

would independently set a default session header argument for R and clojure
for calls and source blocks under subtree “Heading” and change to a
different clojure setting for evaluations under subtree “Subheading”, while
the R session is inherited from “Heading” and therefore unchanged.

Code block specific header arguments

Code block specific header arguments

The most common way to assign values to header arguments is at the
code block level. This can be done by listing a sequence of header
arguments and their values as part of the #+BEGIN_SRC line.
Properties set in this way override both the values of
org-babel-default-header-args and header arguments specified as
properties. In the following example, the :results header argument
is set to silent, meaning the results of execution will not be
inserted in the buffer, and the :exports header argument is set to
code, meaning only the body of the code block will be
preserved on export to HTML or LaTeX.

Header arguments in function calls

Header arguments in function calls

At the most specific level, header arguments for “Library of Babel” or
#+CALL: lines can be set as shown in the two examples below. For more
information on the structure of #+CALL: lines see Evaluating code blocks.

The following will apply the :exports results header argument to the
evaluation of the #+CALL: line.

#+CALL: factorial(n=5) :exports results

The following will apply the :session special header argument to the
evaluation of the factorial code block.

14.8.2.1 :var

The :var header argument is used to pass arguments to code blocks.
The specifics of how arguments are included in a code block vary by language;
these are addressed in the language-specific documentation. However, the
syntax used to specify arguments is the same across all languages. In every
case, variables require a default value when they are declared.

The values passed to arguments can either be literal values, references, or
Emacs Lisp code (see Emacs Lisp evaluation of variables).
References include anything in the Org mode file that takes a #+NAME:
or #+RESULTS: line: tables, lists, #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE blocks,
other code blocks and the results of other code blocks.

Note: When a reference is made to another code block, the referenced block
will be evaluated unless it has current cached results (see cache).

The following syntax is used to pass arguments to code blocks using the
:var header argument.

:var name=assign

The argument, assign, can either be a literal value, such as a string
‘"string"’ or a number ‘9’, or a reference to a table, a list, a
literal example, another code block (with or without arguments), or the
results of evaluating another code block.

Indexable variable values

It is possible to reference portions of variable values by “indexing” into
the variables. Indexes are 0 based with negative values counting back from
the end. If an index is separated by ,s then each subsequent section
will index into the next deepest nesting or dimension of the value. Note
that this indexing occurs before other table related header arguments
like :hlines, :colnames and :rownames are applied. The
following example assigns the last cell of the first row the table
example-table to the variable data:

Ranges of variable values can be referenced using two integers separated by a
:, in which case the entire inclusive range is referenced. For
example the following assigns the middle three rows of example-table
to data.

Additionally, an empty index, or the single character *, are both
interpreted to mean the entire range and as such are equivalent to
0:-1, as shown in the following example in which the entire first
column is referenced.

It is possible to index into the results of code blocks as well as tables.
Any number of dimensions can be indexed. Dimensions are separated from one
another by commas, as shown in the following example.

Emacs Lisp evaluation of variables

Emacs lisp code can be used to initialize variable values. When a variable
value starts with (, [, ' or ` it will be
evaluated as Emacs Lisp and the result of the evaluation will be assigned as
the variable value. The following example demonstrates use of this
evaluation to reliably pass the file-name of the Org mode buffer to a code
block—note that evaluation of header arguments is guaranteed to take place
in the original Org mode file, while there is no such guarantee for
evaluation of the code block body.

14.8.2.2 :results

There are four classes of :results header argument. Only one option
per class may be supplied per code block.

collection header arguments specify how the results should be collected
from the code block

type header arguments specify what type of result the code block will
return—which has implications for how they will be processed before
insertion into the Org mode buffer

format header arguments specify what type of result the code block will
return—which has implications for how they will be inserted into the
Org mode buffer

handling header arguments specify how the results of evaluating the code
block should be handled.

Collection

The following options are mutually exclusive, and specify how the results
should be collected from the code block.

value
This is the default. The result is the value of the last statement in the
code block. This header argument places the evaluation in functional
mode. Note that in some languages, e.g., Python, use of this result type
requires that a return statement be included in the body of the source
code block. E.g., :results value.

output
The result is the collection of everything printed to STDOUT during the
execution of the code block. This header argument places the
evaluation in scripting mode. E.g., :results output.

Type

The following options are mutually exclusive and specify what type of results
the code block will return. By default, results are inserted as either a
table or scalar depending on their value.

table, vector
The results should be interpreted as an Org mode table. If a single value is
returned, it will be converted into a table with one row and one column.
E.g., :results value table.

list
The results should be interpreted as an Org mode list. If a single scalar
value is returned it will be converted into a list with only one element.

scalar, verbatim
The results should be interpreted literally—they will not be
converted into a table. The results will be inserted into the Org mode
buffer as quoted text. E.g., :results value verbatim.

file
The results will be interpreted as the path to a file, and will be inserted
into the Org mode buffer as a file link. E.g., :results value file.

Format

The following options are mutually exclusive and specify what type of results
the code block will return. By default, results are inserted according to the
type as specified above.

raw
The results are interpreted as raw Org mode code and are inserted directly
into the buffer. If the results look like a table they will be aligned as
such by Org mode. E.g., :results value raw.

org
The results are will be enclosed in a BEGIN_SRC org block.
They are not comma-escaped by default but they will be if you hit TAB
in the block and/or if you export the file. E.g., :results value org.

html
Results are assumed to be HTML and will be enclosed in a BEGIN_HTML
block. E.g., :results value html.

latex
Results assumed to be LaTeX and are enclosed in a BEGIN_LaTeX block.
E.g., :results value latex.

code
Result are assumed to be parsable code and are enclosed in a code block.
E.g., :results value code.

pp
The result is converted to pretty-printed code and is enclosed in a code
block. This option currently supports Emacs Lisp, Python, and Ruby. E.g.,
:results value pp.

drawer
The result is wrapped in a RESULTS drawer. This can be useful for
inserting raw or org syntax results in such a way that their
extent is known and they can be automatically removed or replaced.

Handling

The following results options indicate what happens with the
results once they are collected.

silent
The results will be echoed in the minibuffer but will not be inserted into
the Org mode buffer. E.g., :results output silent.

replace
The default value. Any existing results will be removed, and the new results
will be inserted into the Org mode buffer in their place. E.g.,
:results output replace.

append
If there are pre-existing results of the code block then the new results will
be appended to the existing results. Otherwise the new results will be
inserted as with replace.

prepend
If there are pre-existing results of the code block then the new results will
be prepended to the existing results. Otherwise the new results will be
inserted as with replace.

14.8.2.3 :file

The header argument :file is used to specify an external file in which
to save code block results. After code block evaluation an Org mode style
[[file:]] link (see Link format) to the file will be inserted
into the Org mode buffer. Some languages including R, gnuplot, dot, and
ditaa provide special handling of the :file header argument
automatically wrapping the code block body in the boilerplate code required
to save output to the specified file. This is often useful for saving
graphical output of a code block to the specified file.

The argument to :file should be either a string specifying the path to
a file, or a list of two strings in which case the first element of the list
should be the path to a file and the second a description for the link.

14.8.2.4 :file-desc

The value of the :file-desc header argument is used to provide a
description for file code block results which are inserted as Org mode links
(see Link format). If the :file-desc header argument is given
with no value the link path will be placed in both the “link” and the
“description” portion of the Org mode link.

14.8.2.5 :dir and remote execution

While the :file header argument can be used to specify the path to the
output file, :dir specifies the default directory during code block
execution. If it is absent, then the directory associated with the current
buffer is used. In other words, supplying :dir path temporarily has
the same effect as changing the current directory with M-x cd path RET, and
then not supplying :dir. Under the surface, :dir simply sets
the value of the Emacs variable default-directory.

When using :dir, you should supply a relative path for file output
(e.g., :file myfile.jpg or :file results/myfile.jpg) in which
case that path will be interpreted relative to the default directory.

In other words, if you want your plot to go into a folder called Work
in your home directory, you could use

Text results will be returned to the local Org mode buffer as usual, and file
output will be created on the remote machine with relative paths interpreted
relative to the remote directory. An Org mode link to the remote file will be
created.

So, in the above example a plot will be created on the remote machine,
and a link of the following form will be inserted in the org buffer:

[[file:/scp:dand@yakuba.princeton.edu:/home/dand/plot.png][plot.png]]

Most of this functionality follows immediately from the fact that :dir
sets the value of the Emacs variable default-directory, thanks to
tramp. Those using XEmacs, or GNU Emacs prior to version 23 may need to
install tramp separately in order for these features to work correctly.

Further points

If :dir is used in conjunction with :session, although it will
determine the starting directory for a new session as expected, no attempt is
currently made to alter the directory associated with an existing session.

:dir should typically not be used to create files during export with
:exports results or :exports both. The reason is that, in order
to retain portability of exported material between machines, during export
links inserted into the buffer will not be expanded against default
directory. Therefore, if default-directory is altered using
:dir, it is probable that the file will be created in a location to
which the link does not point.

14.8.2.7 :tangle

The :tangle header argument specifies whether or not the code
block should be included in tangled extraction of source code files.

tangle
The code block is exported to a source code file named after the full path
(including the directory) and file name (w/o extension) of the Org mode file.
E.g., :tangle yes.

no
The default. The code block is not exported to a source code file.
E.g., :tangle no.

other
Any other string passed to the :tangle header argument is interpreted
as a path (directory and file name relative to the directory of the Org mode
file) to which the block will be exported. E.g., :tangle path.

14.8.2.9 :comments

By default code blocks are tangled to source-code files without any insertion
of comments beyond those which may already exist in the body of the code
block. The :comments header argument can be set as follows to control
the insertion of extra comments into the tangled code file.

no
The default. No extra comments are inserted during tangling.

link
The code block is wrapped in comments which contain pointers back to the
original Org file from which the code was tangled.

yes
A synonym for “link” to maintain backwards compatibility.

org
Include text from the Org mode file as a comment.
The text is picked from the leading context of the tangled code and is
limited by the nearest headline or source block as the case may be.

14.8.2.10 :padline

Control in insertion of padding lines around code block bodies in tangled
code files. The default value is yes which results in insertion of
newlines before and after each tangled code block. The following arguments
are accepted.

yes
Insert newlines before and after each code block body in tangled code files.

14.8.2.11 :no-expand

By default, code blocks are expanded with org-babel-expand-src-block
during tangling. This has the effect of assigning values to variables
specified with :var (see var), and of replacing “noweb”
references (see Noweb reference syntax) with their targets. The
:no-expand header argument can be used to turn off this behavior.

14.8.2.13 :noweb

The :noweb header argument controls expansion of “noweb” syntax
references (see Noweb reference syntax) when the code block is
evaluated, tangled, or exported. The :noweb header argument can have
one of the five values: no, yes, tangle, or
no-exportstrip-export.

no
The default. “Noweb” syntax references in the body of the code block will
not be expanded before the code block is evaluated, tangled or exported.

yes
“Noweb” syntax references in the body of the code block will be
expanded before the code block is evaluated, tangled or exported.

tangle
“Noweb” syntax references in the body of the code block will be expanded
before the code block is tangled. However, “noweb” syntax references will
not be expanded when the code block is evaluated or exported.

no-export
“Noweb” syntax references in the body of the code block will be expanded
before the block is evaluated or tangled. However, “noweb” syntax
references will not be expanded when the code block is exported.

strip-export
“Noweb” syntax references in the body of the code block will be expanded
before the block is evaluated or tangled. However, “noweb” syntax
references will be removed when the code block is exported.

eval
“Noweb” syntax references in the body of the code block will only be
expanded before the block is evaluated.

Noweb prefix lines

Noweb insertions are now placed behind the line prefix of the
<<reference>>.
This behavior is illustrated in the following example. Because the
<<example>> noweb reference appears behind the SQL comment syntax,
each line of the expanded noweb reference will be commented.

This code block:

-- <<example>>

expands to:

-- this is the
-- multi-line body of example

Note that noweb replacement text that does not contain any newlines will not
be affected by this change, so it is still possible to use inline noweb
references.

14.8.2.14 :noweb-ref

When expanding “noweb” style references the bodies of all code block with
either a block name matching the reference name or a
:noweb-ref header argument matching the reference name will be
concatenated together to form the replacement text.

By setting this header argument at the sub-tree or file level, simple code
block concatenation may be achieved. For example, when tangling the
following Org mode file, the bodies of code blocks will be concatenated into
the resulting pure code file172.

14.8.2.16 :cache

The :cache header argument controls the use of in-buffer caching of
the results of evaluating code blocks. It can be used to avoid re-evaluating
unchanged code blocks. Note that the :cache header argument will not
attempt to cache results when the :session header argument is used,
because the results of the code block execution may be stored in the session
outside of the Org mode buffer. The :cache header argument can have
one of two values: yes or no.

no
The default. No caching takes place, and the code block will be evaluated
every time it is called.

yes
Every time the code block is run a SHA1 hash of the code and arguments
passed to the block will be generated. This hash is packed into the
#+RESULTS: line and will be checked on subsequent
executions of the code block. If the code block has not
changed since the last time it was evaluated, it will not be re-evaluated.

Code block caches notice if the value of a variable argument
to the code block has changed. If this is the case, the cache is
invalidated and the code block is re-run. In the following example,
caller will not be re-run unless the results of random have
changed since it was last run.

14.8.2.17 :sep

The :sep header argument can be used to control the delimiter used
when writing tabular results out to files external to Org mode. This is used
either when opening tabular results of a code block by calling the
org-open-at-point function bound to C-c C-o on the code block,
or when writing code block results to an external file (see file)
header argument.

By default, when :sep is not specified output tables are tab
delimited.

14.8.2.18 :hlines

Tables are frequently represented with one or more horizontal lines, or
hlines. The :hlines argument to a code block accepts the
values yes or no, with a default value of no.

no
Strips horizontal lines from the input table. In most languages this is the
desired effect because an hline symbol is interpreted as an unbound
variable and raises an error. Setting :hlines no or relying on the
default value yields the following results.

14.8.2.20 :rownames

The :rownames header argument can take on the values yes or
no, with a default value of no. Note that Emacs Lisp code
blocks ignore the :rownames header argument entirely given the ease
with which tables with row names may be handled directly in Emacs Lisp.

no
No row name pre-processing will take place.

yes
The first column of the table is removed from the table before processing,
and is then reapplied to the results.

14.8.2.21 :shebang

Setting the :shebang header argument to a string value
(e.g., :shebang "#!/bin/bash") causes the string to be inserted as the
first line of any tangled file holding the code block, and the file
permissions of the tangled file are set to make it executable.

14.8.2.22 :tangle-mode

The tangle-mode header argument controls the permission set on tangled
files. The value of this header argument will be passed to
set-file-modes. For example, to set a tangled file as read only use
:tangle-mode (identity #o444), or to set a tangled file as executable
use :tangle-mode (identity #o755). Blocks with shebang
(shebang) header arguments will automatically be made executable unless
the tangle-mode header argument is also used. The behavior is
undefined if multiple code blocks with different values for the
tangle-mode header argument are tangled to the same file.

14.8.2.23 :eval

The :eval header argument can be used to limit the evaluation of
specific code blocks. The :eval header argument can be useful for
protecting against the evaluation of dangerous code blocks or to ensure that
evaluation will require a query regardless of the value of the
org-confirm-babel-evaluate variable. The possible values of
:eval and their effects are shown below.

never or no

The code block will not be evaluated under any circumstances.

query

Evaluation of the code block will require a query.

never-export or no-export

The code block will not be evaluated during export but may still be called
interactively.

query-export

Evaluation of the code block during export will require a query.

If this header argument is not set then evaluation is determined by the value
of the org-confirm-babel-evaluate variable see Code evaluation security.

14.8.2.24 :wrap

The :wrap header argument is used to mark the results of source block
evaluation. The header argument can be passed a string that will be appended
to #+BEGIN_ and #+END_, which will then be used to wrap the
results. If not string is specified then the results will be wrapped in a
#+BEGIN/END_RESULTS block.

14.8.2.25 :post

The :post header argument is used to post-process the results of a
code block execution. When a post argument is given, the results of the code
block will temporarily be bound to the *this* variable. This variable
may then be included in header argument forms such as those used in var
header argument specifications allowing passing of results to other code
blocks, or direct execution via Emacs Lisp.

The following example illustrates the usage of the :post header
argument.

14.8.2.26 :prologue

The value of the prologue header argument will be prepended to the
code block body before execution. For example, :prologue "reset" may
be used to reset a gnuplot session before execution of a particular code
block, or the following configuration may be used to do this for all gnuplot
code blocks. Also see epilogue.

14.9 Results of evaluation

The way in which results are handled depends on whether a session is invoked,
as well as on whether :results value or :results output is
used. The following table shows the table possibilities. For a full listing
of the possible results header arguments see results.

Non-session

Session

:results value

value of last expression

value of last expression

:results output

contents of STDOUT

concatenation of interpreter output

Note: With :results value, the result in both :session and
non-session is returned to Org mode as a table (a one- or two-dimensional
vector of strings or numbers) when appropriate.

14.9.1 Non-session

14.9.1.1 :results value

This is the default. Internally, the value is obtained by wrapping the code
in a function definition in the external language, and evaluating that
function. Therefore, code should be written as if it were the body of such a
function. In particular, note that Python does not automatically return a
value from a function unless a return statement is present, and so a
‘return’ statement will usually be required in Python.

This is the only one of the four evaluation contexts in which the code is
automatically wrapped in a function definition.

14.9.1.2 :results output

The code is passed to the interpreter as an external process, and the
contents of the standard output stream are returned as text. (In certain
languages this also contains the error output stream; this is an area for
future work.)

14.9.2 Session

14.9.2.1 :results value

The code is passed to an interpreter running as an interactive Emacs inferior
process. Only languages which provide tools for interactive evaluation of
code have session support, so some language (e.g., C and ditaa) do not
support the :session header argument, and in other languages (e.g.,
Python and Haskell) which have limitations on the code which may be entered
into interactive sessions, those limitations apply to the code in code blocks
using the :session header argument as well.

Unless the :results output option is supplied (see below) the result
returned is the result of the last evaluation performed by the
interpreter. (This is obtained in a language-specific manner: the value of
the variable _ in Python and Ruby, and the value of .Last.value
in R).

14.9.2.2 :results output

The code is passed to the interpreter running as an interactive Emacs
inferior process. The result returned is the concatenation of the sequence of
(text) output from the interactive interpreter. Notice that this is not
necessarily the same as what would be sent to STDOUT if the same code
were passed to a non-interactive interpreter running as an external
process. For example, compare the following two blocks:

14.10 Noweb reference syntax

When a code block is tangled or evaluated, whether or not “noweb”
references are expanded depends upon the value of the :noweb header
argument. If :noweb yes, then a Noweb reference is expanded before
evaluation. If :noweb no, the default, then the reference is not
expanded before evaluation. See the noweb-ref header argument for
a more flexible way to resolve noweb references.

It is possible to include the results of a code block rather than the
body. This is done by appending parenthesis to the code block name which may
optionally contain arguments to the code block as shown below.

<<code-block-name(optional arguments)>>

Note: the default value, :noweb no, was chosen to ensure that
correct code is not broken in a language, such as Ruby, where
<<arg>> is a syntactically valid construct. If <<arg>> is not
syntactically valid in languages that you use, then please consider setting
the default value.

Note: if noweb tangling is slow in large Org mode files consider setting the
org-babel-use-quick-and-dirty-noweb-expansion variable to t.
This will result in faster noweb reference resolution at the expense of not
correctly resolving inherited values of the :noweb-ref header
argument.

15.1 Completion

Emacs would not be Emacs without completion, and Org mode uses it whenever it
makes sense. If you prefer an iswitchb- or ido-like interface for
some of the completion prompts, you can specify your preference by setting at
most one of the variables org-completion-use-iswitchborg-completion-use-ido.

Org supports in-buffer completion. This type of completion does
not make use of the minibuffer. You simply type a few letters into
the buffer and use the key to complete text right there.

M-TAB

Complete word at point

At the beginning of a headline, complete TODO keywords.

After ‘\’, complete TeX symbols supported by the exporter.

After ‘*’, complete headlines in the current buffer so that they
can be used in search links like ‘[[*find this headline]]’.

After ‘:’ in a headline, complete tags. The list of tags is taken
from the variable org-tag-alist (possibly set through the
‘#+TAGS’ in-buffer option, see Setting tags), or it is created
dynamically from all tags used in the current buffer.

After ‘:’ and not in a headline, complete property keys. The list
of keys is constructed dynamically from all keys used in the current
buffer.

After ‘#+’, complete the special keywords like ‘TYP_TODO’ or
‘OPTIONS’ which set file-specific options for Org mode. When the
option keyword is already complete, pressing M-TAB again
will insert example settings for this keyword.

In the line after ‘#+STARTUP: ’, complete startup keywords,
i.e., valid keys for this line.

15.2 Easy Templates

Org mode supports insertion of empty structural elements (like
#+BEGIN_SRC and #+END_SRC pairs) with just a few key
strokes. This is achieved through a native template expansion mechanism.
Note that Emacs has several other template mechanisms which could be used in
a similar way, for example yasnippet.

To insert a structural element, type a ‘<’, followed by a template
selector and TAB. Completion takes effect only when the above
keystrokes are typed on a line by itself.

The following template selectors are currently supported.

s

#+BEGIN_SRC ... #+END_SRC

e

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE ... #+END_EXAMPLE

q

#+BEGIN_QUOTE ... #+END_QUOTE

v

#+BEGIN_VERSE ... #+END_VERSE

c

#+BEGIN_CENTER ... #+END_CENTER

l

#+BEGIN_LaTeX ... #+END_LaTeX

L

#+LaTeX:

h

#+BEGIN_HTML ... #+END_HTML

H

#+HTML:

a

#+BEGIN_ASCII ... #+END_ASCII

A

#+ASCII:

i

#+INDEX: line

I

#+INCLUDE: line

For example, on an empty line, typing "<e" and then pressing TAB, will expand
into a complete EXAMPLE template.

You can install additional templates by customizing the variable
org-structure-template-alist. See the docstring of the variable for
additional details.

15.3 Speed keys

Single keys can be made to execute commands when the cursor is at the
beginning of a headline, i.e., before the first star. Configure the variable
org-use-speed-commands to activate this feature. There is a
pre-defined list of commands, and you can add more such commands using the
variable org-speed-commands-user. Speed keys do not only speed up
navigation and other commands, but they also provide an alternative way to
execute commands bound to keys that are not or not easily available on a TTY,
or on a small mobile device with a limited keyboard.

To see which commands are available, activate the feature and press ?
with the cursor at the beginning of a headline.

15.4 Code evaluation and security issues

Org provides tools to work with the code snippets, including evaluating them.

Running code on your machine always comes with a security risk. Badly
written or malicious code can be executed on purpose or by accident. Org has
default settings which will only evaluate such code if you give explicit
permission to do so, and as a casual user of these features you should leave
these precautions intact.

For people who regularly work with such code, the confirmation prompts can
become annoying, and you might want to turn them off. This can be done, but
you must be aware of the risks that are involved.

Code evaluation can happen under the following circumstances:

Source code blocks

Source code blocks can be evaluated during export, or when pressing C-c
C-c in the block. The most important thing to realize here is that Org mode
files which contain code snippets are, in a certain sense, like executable
files. So you should accept them and load them into Emacs only from trusted
sources—just like you would do with a program you install on your computer.

Make sure you know what you are doing before customizing the variables
which take off the default security brakes.

User Option: org-confirm-babel-evaluate

When t (the default), the user is asked before every code block evaluation.
When nil, the user is not asked. When set to a function, it is called with
two arguments (language and body of the code block) and should return t to
ask and nil not to ask.

For example, here is how to execute "ditaa" code (which is considered safe)
without asking:

15.5 Customization

There are more than 500 variables that can be used to customize
Org. For the sake of compactness of the manual, I am not
describing the variables here. A structured overview of customization
variables is available with M-x org-customize RET. Or select
Browse Org Group from the Org->Customization menu. Many
settings can also be activated on a per-file basis, by putting special
lines into the buffer (see In-buffer settings).

15.6 Summary of in-buffer settings

Org mode uses special lines in the buffer to define settings on a
per-file basis. These lines start with a ‘#+’ followed by a
keyword, a colon, and then individual words defining a setting. Several
setting words can be in the same line, but you can also have multiple
lines for the keyword. While these settings are described throughout
the manual, here is a summary. After changing any of those lines in the
buffer, press C-c C-c with the cursor still in the line to
activate the changes immediately. Otherwise they become effective only
when the file is visited again in a new Emacs session.

#+ARCHIVE: %s_done::

This line sets the archive location for the agenda file. It applies for
all subsequent lines until the next ‘#+ARCHIVE’ line, or the end
of the file. The first such line also applies to any entries before it.
The corresponding variable is org-archive-location.

#+CATEGORY:

This line sets the category for the agenda file. The category applies
for all subsequent lines until the next ‘#+CATEGORY’ line, or the
end of the file. The first such line also applies to any entries before it.

#+COLUMNS: %25ITEM ...

Set the default format for columns view. This format applies when
columns view is invoked in locations where no COLUMNS property
applies.

#+CONSTANTS: name1=value1 ...

Set file-local values for constants to be used in table formulas. This
line sets the local variable org-table-formula-constants-local.
The global version of this variable is
org-table-formula-constants.

#+FILETAGS: :tag1:tag2:tag3:

Set tags that can be inherited by any entry in the file, including the
top-level entries.

#+DRAWERS: NAME1 ...

Set the file-local set of additional drawers. The corresponding global
variable is org-drawers.

#+LINK: linkword replace

These lines (several are allowed) specify link abbreviations.
See Link abbreviations. The corresponding variable is
org-link-abbrev-alist.

#+PRIORITIES: highest lowest default

This line sets the limits and the default for the priorities. All three
must be either letters A–Z or numbers 0–9. The highest priority must
have a lower ASCII number than the lowest priority.

#+PROPERTY: Property_Name Value

This line sets a default inheritance value for entries in the current
buffer, most useful for specifying the allowed values of a property.

#+SETUPFILE: file

This line defines a file that holds more in-buffer setup. Normally this is
entirely ignored. Only when the buffer is parsed for option-setting lines
(i.e., when starting Org mode for a file, when pressing C-c C-c in a
settings line, or when exporting), then the contents of this file are parsed
as if they had been included in the buffer. In particular, the file can be
any other Org mode file with internal setup. You can visit the file the
cursor is in the line with C-c '.

#+STARTUP:

This line sets options to be used at startup of Org mode, when an
Org file is being visited.

The first set of options deals with the initial visibility of the outline
tree. The corresponding variable for global default settings is
org-startup-folded, with a default value t, which means
overview.

overview top-level headlines only
content all headlines
showall no folding of any entries
showeverything show even drawer contents

Dynamic virtual indentation is controlled by the variable
org-startup-indented173

indent start with org-indent-mode turned on
noindent start with org-indent-mode turned off

Then there are options for aligning tables upon visiting a file. This
is useful in files containing narrowed table columns. The corresponding
variable is org-startup-align-all-tables, with a default value
nil.

align align all tables
noalign don’t align tables on startup

When visiting a file, inline images can be automatically displayed. The
corresponding variable is org-startup-with-inline-images, with a
default value nil to avoid delays when visiting a file.

When visiting a file, LaTeX fragments can be converted to images
automatically. The variable org-startup-with-latex-preview which
controls this behavior, is set to nil by default to avoid delays on
startup.

Logging the closing and reopening of TODO items and clock intervals can be
configured using these options (see variables org-log-done,
org-log-note-clock-out and org-log-repeat)

logdone record a timestamp when an item is marked DONE
lognotedone record timestamp and a note when DONE
nologdone don’t record when items are marked DONE
logrepeat record a time when reinstating a repeating item
lognoterepeat record a note when reinstating a repeating item
nologrepeat do not record when reinstating repeating item
lognoteclock-out record a note when clocking out
nolognoteclock-out don’t record a note when clocking out
logreschedule record a timestamp when scheduling time changes
lognotereschedule record a note when scheduling time changes
nologreschedule do not record when a scheduling date changes
logredeadline record a timestamp when deadline changes
lognoteredeadline record a note when deadline changes
nologredeadline do not record when a deadline date changes
logrefile record a timestamp when refiling
lognoterefile record a note when refiling
nologrefile do not record when refiling
logdrawer store log into drawer
nologdrawer store log outside of drawer
logstatesreversed reverse the order of states notes
nologstatesreversed do not reverse the order of states notes

Here are the options for hiding leading stars in outline headings, and for
indenting outlines. The corresponding variables are
org-hide-leading-stars and org-odd-levels-only, both with a
default setting nil (meaning showstars and oddeven).

hidestars make all but one of the stars starting a headline invisible.
showstars show all stars starting a headline
indent virtual indentation according to outline level
noindent no virtual indentation according to outline level
odd allow only odd outline levels (1,3,...)
oddeven allow all outline levels

To turn on custom format overlays over timestamps (variables
org-put-time-stamp-overlays and
org-time-stamp-overlay-formats), use

customtime overlay custom time format

The following options influence the table spreadsheet (variable
constants-unit-system).

constcgs constants.el should use the c-g-s unit system
constSI constants.el should use the SI unit system

To influence footnote settings, use the following keywords. The
corresponding variables are org-footnote-define-inline,
org-footnote-auto-label, and org-footnote-auto-adjust.

15.7 The very busy C-c C-c key

The key C-c C-c has many purposes in Org, which are all
mentioned scattered throughout this manual. One specific function of
this key is to add tags to a headline (see Tags). In many
other circumstances it means something like “Hey Org, look
here and update according to what you see here”. Here is a summary of
what this means in different contexts.

- If there are highlights in the buffer from the creation of a sparse
tree, or from clock display, remove these highlights.

- If the cursor is in one of the special #+KEYWORD lines, this
triggers scanning the buffer for these lines and updating the
information.

- If the cursor is inside a table, realign the table. This command
works even if the automatic table editor has been turned off.

- If the cursor is on a #+TBLFM line, re-apply the formulas to
the entire table.

- If the current buffer is a capture buffer, close the note and file it.
With a prefix argument, file it, without further interaction, to the
default location.

- If the cursor is on a <<<target>>>, update radio targets and
corresponding links in this buffer.

- If the cursor is in a property line or at the start or end of a property
drawer, offer property commands.

- If the cursor is at a footnote reference, go to the corresponding
definition, and vice versa.

- If the cursor is on a statistics cookie, update it.

- If the cursor is in a plain list item with a checkbox, toggle the status
of the checkbox.

- If the cursor is on a numbered item in a plain list, renumber the
ordered list.

- If the cursor is on the #+BEGIN line of a dynamic block, the
block is updated.

15.8 A cleaner outline view

Some people find it noisy and distracting that the Org headlines start with a
potentially large number of stars, and that text below the headlines is not
indented. While this is no problem when writing a book-like document
where the outline headings are really section headings, in a more
list-oriented outline, indented structure is a lot cleaner:

If you are using at least Emacs 23.2174 and version 6.29 of Org, this kind of view can
be achieved dynamically at display time using org-indent-mode. In
this minor mode, all lines are prefixed for display with the necessary amount
of space175. Also headlines are prefixed with additional stars, so that the amount of
indentation shifts by two176 spaces per level. All headline
stars but the last one are made invisible using the org-hide
face177; see below under ‘2.’ for more information on how this
works. You can turn on org-indent-mode for all files by customizing
the variable org-startup-indented, or you can turn it on for
individual files using

#+STARTUP: indent

If you want a similar effect in an earlier version of Emacs and/or Org, or if
you want the indentation to be hard space characters so that the plain text
file looks as similar as possible to the Emacs display, Org supports you in
the following way:

Indentation of text below headlines
You may indent text below each headline to make the left boundary line up
with the headline, like

*** 3rd level
more text, now indented

Org supports this with paragraph filling, line wrapping, and structure
editing178,
preserving or adapting the indentation as appropriate.

Hiding leading stars You can modify the display in such a way that
all leading stars become invisible. To do this in a global way, configure
the variable org-hide-leading-stars or change this on a per-file basis
with

#+STARTUP: hidestars
#+STARTUP: showstars

With hidden stars, the tree becomes:

* Top level headline
* Second level
* 3rd level
...

The leading stars are not truly replaced by whitespace, they are only
fontified with the face org-hide that uses the background color as
font color. If you are not using either white or black background, you may
have to customize this face to get the wanted effect. Another possibility is
to set this font such that the extra stars are almost invisible, for
example using the color grey90 on a white background.

Things become cleaner still if you skip all the even levels and use only odd
levels 1, 3, 5..., effectively adding two stars to go from one outline level
to the next179. In this
way we get the outline view shown at the beginning of this section. In order
to make the structure editing and export commands handle this convention
correctly, configure the variable org-odd-levels-only, or set this on
a per-file basis with one of the following lines:

#+STARTUP: odd
#+STARTUP: oddeven

You can convert an Org file from single-star-per-level to the
double-star-per-level convention with M-x org-convert-to-odd-levels
RET in that file. The reverse operation is M-x
org-convert-to-oddeven-levels.

15.9 Using Org on a tty

Because Org contains a large number of commands, by default many of
Org’s core commands are bound to keys that are generally not
accessible on a tty, such as the cursor keys (left, right,
up, down), TAB and RET, in particular when used
together with modifiers like Meta and/or Shift. To access
these commands on a tty when special keys are unavailable, the following
alternative bindings can be used. The tty bindings below will likely be
more cumbersome; you may find for some of the bindings below that a
customized workaround suits you better. For example, changing a timestamp
is really only fun with S-cursor keys, whereas on a
tty you would rather use C-c . to re-insert the timestamp.

15.10.1 Packages that Org cooperates with

calc.el by Dave Gillespie

Org uses the Calc package for implementing spreadsheet
functionality in its tables (see The spreadsheet). Org
checks for the availability of Calc by looking for the function
calc-eval which will have been autoloaded during setup if Calc has
been installed properly. As of Emacs 22, Calc is part of the Emacs
distribution. Another possibility for interaction between the two
packages is using Calc for embedded calculations. See Embedded Mode in GNU Emacs Calc Manual.

constants.el by Carsten Dominik

In a table formula (see The spreadsheet), it is possible to use
names for natural constants or units. Instead of defining your own
constants in the variable org-table-formula-constants, install
the constants package which defines a large number of constants
and units, and lets you use unit prefixes like ‘M’ for
‘Mega’, etc. You will need version 2.0 of this package, available
at http://www.astro.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools. Org checks for
the function constants-get, which has to be autoloaded in your
setup. See the installation instructions in the file
constants.el.

cdlatex.el by Carsten Dominik

Org mode can make use of the CDLaTeX package to efficiently enter
LaTeX fragments into Org files. See CDLaTeX mode.